Baseball behind Radio/TV Marti's encrypted broadcasts, officials say

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/20/3991698/baseball-behind-radiotv-martis.html

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
McClatchy Newspapers
Oct. 20, 2011

MIAMI -- The mystery of Radio/TV Marti's encrypted broadcasts to Cuba, 
which fueled Havana complaints of a U.S. "cyber war" against the 
communist government, has been solved.

Think baseball.

The mystery began Oct. 10, when a Website that tracks U.S. government 
spending on Cuba programs reported that an Israeli firm had won a 
contract to broadcast Radio/TV Marti programs to the island via 
satellite.

Worth up to $1 million, the agreement requires RRsat Global 
Communications Network to provide Radio/TV Marti with the capability of 
encrypting its satellite TV signal.

CubaMoneyProject.org, a Website run by Tracey Eaton, a U.S. journalist 
who was based in Cuba for several years, highlighted the contract's 
mention of encryption but did not comment on why TV Marti needs it.

Radio Marti and TV Marti are U.S. government stations created to try to 
break the Castro government monopoly on the island's news media. Cuba 
brands them as propaganda arms of the U.S. government.

Marti's radio signals are broadcast on short wave and AM frequencies, 
and the TV signals are broadcast from the Hispasat satellite and an 
airplane that flies along the Florida Keys. Cuba easily jams the 
airplane broadcasts but cannot jam the satellite broadcast, which work 
much like Direct TV.

[...]


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