PULLING THE PLUG ON SOVIET EAVESDROPPERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403330002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403330002-0
WIN F. F,P~tti~-RED
Pulling the
Plug on Soviet
Eavesdroppers
U . .' 'S 1c:OR1D REPOPT
8 April 1985
another in the U.S. and
even to pick up some inter-
national messages carried
by the Intelsat network.
Other communications
are simply plucked from
the air by banks of anten-
nas at the present Soviet
Embassy in Washington
and posts in New York
and San Francisco.
Scooped up wholesale
from the ether, these mes-
sages are run through
computers programed to
recognize certain phone
numbers and names. If the
message is sent by ma-
chine, such as a telex, the
computer prints it out.
If the intercept is a tele-
phone conversation, it
must be transcribed and
translated. Moscow is said
Electronic spies will get an
earful of gobbledygook rather
than vital secrets once a new
U.S. plan is implemented.
A Pentagon consultant telephones a
defense contractor, asking about a new
missile's supersecret guidance system.
Across town, one of a half-dozen an-
tennas bristling atop the Soviet Embas-
sy intercepts the call and feeds the sig-
nal into a computer. Sensing a familiar
dial-tone sequence, the computer re-
cords the conversation for analysis.
The incident is hypothetical. But U.S.
officials say real episodes of this kind
happen daily as the Soviets expand an
already impressive capacity to carry
out a wide range of esoteric snooping.
Now, the Reagan administration is
fighting back. A plan was announced
on March 26 to develop a better type
of secure phone that would foil Soviet
electronic spies. The aim is to install
hundreds of thousands of these phones
in offices of government security agen-
cies and defense contractors.
Typewriters bugged. The decision
reflects widespread concern in Wash-
ington over a possible hemorrhage of
secrets to Moscow. "The Soviet Union
is making major efforts to intercept
and walk away with our secrets," as-
serts Donald Latham, the Pentagon's
communications-security chief.
Latest example: It was confirmed in
late March that the Soviets had placed
i tiny transmitters in typewriters shipped
to the American Embassy in Moscow.
Sensors hidden in the embassy's walls
apparently picked up the tapping of
keys being struck, thus revealing to the
Kremlin what was written.
Often, there is no need to plant a bug
or tap a phone line. Huge volumes of
secret information simply go through
the air, free for the taking.
Soon, the Soviets may have an even
better listening post in Washington.
Moscow's new embassy, now nearing
completion, sits atop a 350-foot hill with
a clear line of sight to the White House,
the Pentagon and commercial commu-
nications towers. Antennas there will
be able to pick up any messages sent
through the airwaves.
Giant antennas in Cuba permit the
Soviets to listen in on most messages
carried by satellite from one point to
to have assigned thou-
sands to this task.
tractors have at least one Antennas on roof of new Soviet Embassy will
secure phone. But, for a of sight to intercept secret Washington calls.
busy manager or engineer,
it is always easier to pick up the insecure
phone a few inches away. "People are
way too careless with their use of
phones," Latham says.
They are also careless with facsimile
machines that send drawings and other
documents over phone circuits. "The
tendency is to say, 'This is sensitive, so
I'll send it by fax.' That's just giving it
to them in writing," says J. Michael
Nye, president of Marketing Consul-
tants International, a Maryland com-
munications-security firm.
Officials are reluctant to cite in-
stances of secrets purloined in this way.
But the interception and decoding of
enemy communications in wartime has
been demonstrated on many occasions.
Most recently, the North Vietnamese
made use of intercepted messages to
warn their troops of U.S. attacks.
Yet it was not until the late '70s that
officials full' awoke to the fact that
hostile intelligence agencies were 'able
to listen in as government officials and
defense contractors chatted over unse-
cured phones in this country.
The Carter administration reacted
by.connecting key offices in Washing-
ton and several other cities with under-
ground wires rather than relying on
microwaves, which travel through the
atmosphere from one point to another.
. The government also equipped a
few offices with phones that scramble
and unscramble conversations. But
these instruments, still in use, cost
$9,000 or more apiece, are awkward to
handle and produce distorted sounds.
And the vast majority of government
communications still take place over
ordinary phones.
In Washington's new drive against
electronic spying, the National Securi-
ty Agency announced on March 26
that three companies-RCA, AT&T
and Motorola-would share a 44-mil-
lion-dollar grant to develop improved
scrambler phones. The government ex-
pects to buy half a million of them for
less than $2,000 apiece.
Tiny coded key. The new phones,
when they come into use in 1987, will be
easy to use and will sound like an ordi-
nary phone. A coding device about the
size of a pack of gum is inserted in the
phone while it is in use and can be locked
away in a safe at other times. Even for
top-secret security, the coded key will
only have to be changed once a year.
When a call is made, one phone que-
ries the other and tells the user-with a
light or electronic-display panel-what
level of security is being provided.
"Our goal is to put one of these on
every guy's desk," says Latham.
Once production lines are running
full speed, the'secure phones will go
into other government offices and be
sold to financial institutions and other
firms whose messages, while not classi-
fied as secret, are still sensitive.
No one thinks the secure phones, by
themselves, will prevent a determined
foe from trying to listen in. But it will no
longer be the free ride that it is today. ^
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403330002-0