Security flaw found in feds' digital radios

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20090434-281/security-flaw-found-in-feds-digital-radios/

By Declan McCullagh
Privacy, Inc.
CNet News
August 9, 2011

Expensive high-tech digital radios used by the FBI, Secret Service, and 
Homeland Security are designed so poorly that they can be jammed by a 
$30 children's toy, CNET has learned.

A GirlTech IMME, Mattel's pink instant-messaging device with a miniature 
keyboard that's marketed to pre-teen girls, can be used to disrupt 
sensitive radio communications used by every major federal law 
enforcement agency, a team of security researchers from the University 
of Pennsylvania is planning to announce tomorrow.

Converting the GirlTech gadget into a jammer may be beyond the ability 
of a street criminal for now, but that won't last, says associate 
professor Matt Blaze, who co-authored the paper that will be presented 
tomorrow at the Usenix Security symposium in San Francisco. CNET 
obtained a copy of the paper, which will be made publicly available in 
the afternoon.

"It's going to be someone somewhere creating the Project 25 jamming kit 
and it'll be something that you download from the Net," Blaze said. 
"We're not there right now, but we're pretty close."

[...]


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