NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Secure telephone

A secure telephone is a telephone that provides voice security in the form of end-to-end encryption for the telephone call, and in some cases also the mutual authentication of the call parties, protecting them against a man in the middle attack. US Government Secure Telephone Equipment (STE) desk telephone. ... US Government Secure Telephone Equipment (STE) desk telephone. ... STE desk set. ... The telephone or phone (Greek: tele = far away and phone = voice) is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly voice and speech) across distance. ... Secure voice (alternatively secure speech or ciphony) is a term in cryptography for devices which are designed to provide voice encryption for voice communication over a range of communication types such as radio, telephone or IP. A digital secure voice usually includes two components, a digitizer to convert between speech... In cryptography, encryption is the process of obscuring information to make it unreadable without special knowledge. ... Authentication (Greek: Î±Ï…Î¸ÎµÎ½Ï„Î¹ÎºÏŒÏ‚, from authentes=author) is the act of establishing or confirming something (or someone) as authentic, that is, that claims made by or about the thing are true. ... In cryptography, a man in the middle attack (MTM) is an attack in which an attacker is able to read, insert and modify at will, messages between two parties without either party knowing that the link between them has been compromised. ...

The practical availability of secure telephones is restricted by several factors; notably politics, export issues, incompatibility between different products (the devices on each side of the call have to talk the same protocol), and high (though recently decreasing) price of the devices. Since World War II, Western governments, including the U.S. and its NATO allies have regulated the export of cryptography for national security considerations. ...

The best-known product on the US government market is the STU-III family. However, this system has now been replaced by the Secure Terminal Equipment (STE) and SCIP standards which defines specifications for the design of equipment to secure both data and voice. The SCIP standard was developed by the NSA and the US DOD to derive more interoperability between secure communication equipment. A STU-III secure telephone; this model AT&T STU-III is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies . ... STE desk set. ... SCIP is the U.S. Governments standard for secure voice communication. ... Image:Security Agency seal. ... The United States Department of Defense, abbreviated as DoD or DOD and sometimes called the Defense Department, is a civilian Cabinet organization of the United States government. ... Interoperability is the ability of products, systems, or business processes to work together to accomplish a common task. ...

The concerns about massive growth of telephone tapping incidents lead to growing demand for secure telephones. Several companies offer their products, eg. Dutch CryptoPhone, or the secure telephone division of Siemens AG. Telephone tapping (or wire tapping/wiretapping in the US) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. ... Siemens AG (FWB:SIE, NYSE: SI) is the worlds largest electronics company. ...

There are also software solutions available for secure VoIP. The most popular one is Skype, providing end-to-end encryption for PC-to-PC calls, though as it is closed-source, its security cannot be definitively verified. Product of historical significance are PGPfone and Nautilus (designed as a non-backdoored alternative to Clipper), and now officially discontinued (but continuing living on SourceForge) SpeakFreely, and the security VoIP protocol wrapper Zfone developed by the creator of PGP. IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ... Skype (IPA pronunciation: (rhymes with type and pipe)) is a proprietary peer-to-peer Internet telephony (VoIP) network, founded by Niklas ZennstrÃ¶m and Janus Friis, the creators of KaZaA, and competing against established open VoIP protocols like SIP, IAX, or H.323. ... PGPphone is a secure voice system based on the popular PGP encryption package. ... Key escrow is an arrangement in which the keys needed to decrypt encrypted data are held in escrow by a third party, so that someone else (typically government agencies) can obtain them to decrypt messages which they suspect to be relevant to national security. ... The Clipper chip is a chipset that was developed and promoted by the U.S. Government as an encryption device to be adopted by telecommunications companies for voice transmission. ... Sourceforge. ... Zfone is software for secure voice communication over the Internet (VoIP). ... PGP is a computer program which provides cryptographic privacy and authentication. ...

See also

Cellphone tracking is a technology used to track the current position of a cellphones call. ...

External links

Categories: Cryptographic hardware | Telecommunications equipment | Secure communication In cryptography, a rotor machine is a electro-mechanical device used for encrypting and decrypting secret messages. ... CSP 1600, the replacement stepping unit to adapt the ECM Mark II to CCM The Combined Cipher Machine (CCM) (or Combined Cypher Machine) was a common cipher machine system for securing Allied communications during World War II and for a few years after amongst NATO. The British Typex machine and... A three-rotor German military Enigma machine showing, from bottom to top, the plugboard, the keyboard, the lamps and the finger-wheels of the rotors emerging from the inner lid (version with labels). ... The advanced Russian cipher machine Fialka (M-125) has only recently been made known to the public. ... A single-rotor Hebern machine. ... A diagram of a loopback-rotor construction; in this simplified example, two rotors with nine contacts each are used. ... KL-7 on display at USAF Communications Agency museum. ... The Lacida (or LCD) was a rotor cipher machine designed before World War II by the Polish Cipher Bureau for wartime use by Polish higher commands. ... Friedman patented the design of the M-325 in US patent #2,877,565. ... Mercury was a British cipher machine used by the Air Ministry from 1950 until at least the early 1960s. ... The NEMA (NEue MAschine) (new machine), also designated the T-D (Tasten-Druecker-Maschine) (key-stroke machine), was a 10-wheel rotor machine designed by the Swiss Army during World War II. Categories: Rotor machines ... The OMI cryptograph was a seven-rotor machine produced by Italian firm Ottico Meccanica Italiana. ... Portex on display at Bletchley Park Museum, UK. Portex (or BID/50/1) was a British cipher machine. ... SIGABA In the history of cryptography, the ECM Mark II was a rotor machine used by the United States from World War II (WWII) until the 1950s. ... SIGCUM on display at the National Cryptologic Museum. ... A Singlet machine on display at Bletchley Park BID/60 (Singlet) was a British encryption machine used mainly by the British intelligence services from around 1949 or 1950 onwards. ... Typex was based on the commercial Enigma machine, but incorporated a number of additional features to improve the security. ... The Bazeries cylinder is a simple cipher machine originally invented by American President Thomas Jefferson in the 18th century, but did not come into wide use until it was reinvented by Commandant Etienne Bazeries, the conqueror of the Great Cipher, a century later. ... C-36 is a cipher machine designed by Swedish cryptographer Boris Hagelin. ... The (Hagelin) C-52 and CX-52 were cipher machines manufactured by Crypto AG starting 1951/1952. ... The (Hagelin) CD-57 was a portable, mechanical cipher machine manufactured by Crypto AG, first produced in 1957 (1). ... A cipher disk is an enciphering and deciphering tool developed in the 15th Century by Leon Battista Alberti. ... An HC-9 on display at Bletchley Park. ... The Kryha machine, patented in the US in 1930, used two concentic discs labelled with the alphabet. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Bazeries cylinder. ... The M-94 and M-138 cipher devices The M-94 was a piece of cryptographic equipment used by the United States army, consisting of several lettered discs arranged as a cylinder. ... In cryptography, the M-209, designated CSP-1500 by the Navy (C-38 by the manufacturer) is a portable, mechanical cipher machine used by the US military primarily in World War II, though it remained in active use through the Korean War. ... The Reihenschieber was a hand cipher system used by Germany. ... This article is about the encryption device; for the Dune character, see Scytale (Dune). ... The 5-UCO was a one time tape (OTT) Vernam cipher encryption system developed by the U.K. during World War II for use on teletype circuits. ... The basic TOPIC equipment without the power supply on display at Bletchley Park. ... An array of KW-26s The TSEC/KW-26, code named ROMULUS, was an encryption system used by the U.S. Government and, later, by NATO countries. ... The KW-37, code named JASON, was an encryption system developed In the 1950s by the U.S. National Security Agency to protect fleet broadcasts of the U.S. Navy. ... The Lorenz machine was used to encrypt high-level German military communications during World War II. British cryptographers at Bletchley Park were able to break the cipher. ... STURGEON exhibit at the National Cryptologic Museum. ... Secure voice (alternatively secure speech or ciphony) is a term in cryptography for devices which are designed to provide voice encryption for voice communication over a range of communication types such as radio, telephone or IP. A digital secure voice usually includes two components, a digitizer to convert between speech... The KY-3 is a secure telephone system developed by the U.S. National Security Agency. ... The Speech Security Equipment (VINSON), TSEC/KY-57, is a portable, tactical cryptographic device in the VINSON family, designed to provide voice encryption for a range of military communication devices such as radio or telephone. ... Front panel of KY-58. ... TSEC/KY68 Basic Unit. ... The Omni adds Type 1 secure voice and secure data to any standard analog telephone or modem connected computer. ... SIGSALY exhibit at the National Cryptologic Museum In cryptography, SIGSALY (also Green Hornet) was a telephone scrambler used in World War II for the highest-level Allied communications. ... STE desk set. ... STU-II secure telephone The STU-II is a secure telephone developed by the U.S. National Security Agency. ... A STU-III secure telephone; this model AT&T STU-III is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies . ... VINSON is a family of voice encryption devices used by U.S. and allied military and law enforcement, based on the SAVILLE encryption algorithm and 16 kbit/s CVSD audio compression. ... SCIP is the U.S. Governments standard for secure voice communication. ... The SectÃ©ra Secure Module is a device that can provide encryption of both voice and data. ... The word cryptex is a neologism coined by the author Dan Brown for his novel The Da Vinci Code, denoting a portable vault used to hide secret messages. ... A selection of antique, hand-crafted Chinese jadeite jade buttons Jade An ornamental stone, jade is a name applied to two different silicate minerals. ... KG-84A and KG-84C. US Navy photo. ... A KL-43 on display at the National Cryptologic Museum. ... Noreen on display at Bletchley Park museum Noreen, or BID 590, was an off-line one-time tape cipher machine of British origin, and also used by Canada. ... Purple is any of a group of colors intermediate between deep blue and red. ... The German Lorenz cipher machine contained 12 pinwheels, with a total of 501 pins . In cryptography, a pinwheel was a device for producing a short pseudorandom sequence of bits (determined by the machines initial settings), as a component in a cipher machine. ... Rockex, or Telekrypton, was an offline one-time tape cipher machine known to have been used by Britain and Canada from 1943. ...