NSW Police Encryption key rollover

[Brian]

I think one of the key advantages the cops have in doing a manual rekey, instead of over the air is they are able to physically see and reprogram a radio. Given the fact that many radios go missing; be it missing in a station cupboard, drawer or locker; under the seat of a car, or into someone elses hands who shouldn't have it; the fact remains they only reprogram the radios they physically set their eyes on and any radio which isn't sighted no longer works on the key. A great way of performing a massive auditing task.

Second advantage of physially rekeying radios comes down to a maintenance aspect. Every radio can be pysically looked over quickly and an antenna an be changed over, or a faceplate or volume knob changed etc. where required.

It might all be a bit labout intensive, but it can provide an unprecedented level of quality control.

Brian.

[ivahri]

Brian,

That is nonsense... How can you claim that it is an advantage to have to have a team of techs taking literally months to go from radio to radio programming keys? This is how network security gets compromised. You need to be able to change keys quickly & regularly- not like this. If a radio is stolen the bad guys have months of free access before the key changes... talk about stupid! The Police don't have an option because they are running on a conventional network but if they were running on a trunking system they wouldn't be doing things this way. I'd hate to be a police tech doing this work- what a mind numbing job to do day after day.

So you don't "see" a radio, so what? If you can't account for a radio kill it. Simple.

And as for quality control... given the number of incorrect & duplicate IDs I find from techs reprogramming radios this does nothing at all for quality control, in fact it increases the potential for mistakes to be made.

Cheers,


Richard

[ivahri]

Hi guys,

Just a postscript to this... I've been playing radio detective all day today to find radios incorrectly programmed. In one day I found three- one which I wasn't even looking for! That isn't meant as a slag off at the blokes who did it but when you are a tech doing dozens of radios day in day out, manually driving from town to town... I defy the greatest tech on earth not to make mistakes. That is why the faster we can make it possible to do over the air with the least direct intervention- the better. Now I have to drive out to West Wyalong next week to fix one, another I suspect is around Condo... I can think of places I'd prefer to go!

Cheers,

Richard

[rustynswrail]

Hi guys,

Just a postscript to this... I've been playing radio detective all day today to find radios incorrectly programmed. In one day I found three- one which I wasn't even looking for! That isn't meant as a slag off at the blokes who did it but when you are a tech doing dozens of radios day in day out, manually driving from town to town... I defy the greatest tech on earth not to make mistakes. That is why the faster we can make it possible to do over the air with the least direct intervention- the better. Now I have to drive out to West Wyalong next week to fix one, another I suspect is around Condo... I can think of places I'd prefer to go! Cheers, Richard

Richard,

Wilcannia?

R

[ivahri]

Nah, Brewarrina...

[Wonky]

A bit more on the story:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/h ... 6119185214

[Scotty]

<Suggested to remove post due to info received - thanks, Scotty>

[citabria]

Haha.. high tech hackers? lol. Nope, "Low tech criminals" more like it.

I think the story goes more like this:-



Replace the "drug him and hit him" with "Hes got access to the police keyloader - heres my keyloader, offer him lots of money and get the keys transferred into mine" and there you have it.

[citabria]

The slide about is a well known adage in the crypto industry - Its usually people letting the system down, not the technology.

If you had a friend in the police that had legitimate access to the Keys and Keyloader, and was willing to them with you, would you rat on them when you got caught selling keyloaded portables? Of course you wouldn't. It's far easier and safer to claim you cracked it it somehow...

[SKEYGEN]

The Police don't have an option because they are running on a conventional network

No, they don't have this option because they haven't sprung for a KMF and associated infrastructure. Conventional vs trunking does not play a part in it.