Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Encryption systems to go digital- Current communication equipment is via 1993

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 03:30:22 -0500

Encryption systems to go digital- Current communication equipment is via 1993
By Magnus Bennett
For The Prague Post
(February 12, 2004)

Prague Post, Czech Republic - Feb 12, 2004

The government is going digital to ensure that secret communications between top
officials remain secret.

The Cabinet agreed Feb. 4 to update its aging analog communications system at a
cost of at least 205 million Kc ($7.9 million).
The Czech Republic's current "Vektor" system, which uses Motorola's Sectel 9600
equipment for voice and data encryption through the telephone network, has been
in use since 1993 and is due for renewal by the end of 2005.

The Interior Ministry says the country needs a new digital system capable of
transferring and receiving data in encrypted form.
The new system will enable the transfer of top-secret information between Czech
national institutions. It will also transfer confidential information from
international bodies such as NATO and the European Union to the Czech Republic.

For instance, Czech embassies in Brussels will be able to transfer information
securely to the Foreign Ministry in Prague.
The current system does not meet the requirements of the European police
organization Europol or NATO, according to officials, but there is no suggestion
that security has been compromised because of the system's age.

The new system will be faster, cheaper to run and will allow greater use of
confidential and classified information, according to Interior Ministry press
officer Marie Masarikova.

"The system at present does not sufficiently meet the latest developments in
communications systems," she said. "The digital system will be faster and will
provide cost-savings."

The Interior Ministry originally wanted a considerably more-expensive secure
system, but the Cabinet told it to scale down its proposals and find a cheaper
alternative.

The ministry says the new system will be put together gradually over the course
of this year. Although final details have yet to be worked out, tenders will
probably be called for parts of the installation, while specific tasks may be
handed to companies without a tender process. Czech and foreign companies
involved in the most sensitive areas of the project will have to be vetted by
the National Security Council.

A pilot project is planned for the start of next year, Masarikova said. "Several
ministries will be linked together with the system, and the plan is to link all
chosen institutions by the end of 2006."

She added that officials had drawn up a precisely defined list of who will be
permitted to use the system and the amount of access they will have.

The Defense Ministry is one of the ministries expected to join the pilot
project.  Although the Army already has a separate secure digital communications
network linked to NATO, top ministry officials are likely to be connected to the
new governmental system once it is in place.

http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/Art/0212/news7.php

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