Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Racial slurs prompt radio overhaul

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:23:35 -0400

Racial slurs prompt radio overhaul

By Jim Barthold

Mobile Radio Technology, May 1, 2004

The Chicago Fire Department lately has experienced a series of incidents
that many emergency services experts agree is rather unusual: a hacker,
apparently using a non-official radio, has been spewing racial epithets
over the fire band.

To solve the problem, the city has reprogrammed all 1400-plus of its
fire radios to identify them as city property, which ostensibly will
prevent the transmission of rogue broadcasts. It also has begun a
previously announced migration to a new $180 million citywide digital
trunking system. The $10 million first phase, to be executed later this
year, will cover the fire department and make this kind of activity a
near impossibility, according to sources.

The headache began in February when a firefighter on the way to an
emergency situation used a racial epithet to describe a driver who was
impeding traffic. The remark was unintentionally broadcast and the
firefighter was disciplined, but the incident sparked what the CFD
believes is at least one copycat who has spewed racial remarks over the
air on several subsequent occasions.

“We're 99% sure [this is coming from outside the 5000-member fire
department] but we don't know who's operating the radios,” said Larry
Langford, a spokesman for Emergency Management and Communications who
also happens to be a radio frequency engineer.

When it was first deployed, Chicago's emergency communications system
was “not designed for security, it was designed for efficiency,”
Langford said, and didn't have private line continuous tone squelch [PL]
detection. When the city eventually added PL, it was to block out drift
from radios in places such as Milwaukee and Indianapolis; it wasn't a
security measure.
The addition of PL created a breach point, according to Langford.

“You can get in if you have the PL and the frequency of the input,” said
Langford. “The PL tone, you can get that off the air and figure out what
it is; it's not any form of encryption, it's just a way to manage the
channel a little better in congestion situations.”
While it's possible that someone has cracked that code, it's also
possible, say industry experts, that someone simply is using a stolen or
discarded radio.

“That's not uncommon,” said Garry Briese, executive director of the
International Association of Fire Chiefs. “To intentionally hack into
the frequency is uncommon; in fact, it's the very first time I've heard
about it happening.”

Harlin McEwen, chairman of the International Association of Chiefs of
Police [IACP] Communications & Technology Committee, agreed it is
unlikely an outsider had learned the codes and set up a radio to break
into the airwaves.
“It takes a bit of an effort. You can't just go to the store and buy a
radio that will do this,” he said. “In all my years it has been my
experience that we've had hardly any problem with outside people getting
into the system and causing interference intentionally.” However, McEwen
acknowledged the older analog technology prevents anyone from being sure
where the signals are emanating.

The nonsense will certainly stop later this year when the department
migrates to the digital trunked system, said Chuck Jackson, vice
president and director of system operations for Motorola, which builds
the Chicago equipment. While the legacy analog system resembles a
telephone party line — everyone can join the conversation — the new
system recognizes the caller and assigns a trunked channel, according to
Jackson.

“As soon as you key your radio, it comes up on a computer screen as
exactly what radio it is — the actual handset or the actual mobile radio
— each has a unique identifier,” he said.

Jackson added the digital trunked system wouldn't complete a
transmission unless all users along the communications path are
authorized.

“You push a button and in less than a quarter of a second the digital
messages go back and check to make sure that you're authorized in the
database,” he said.

That would make it nearly impossible for a rogue radio to disrupt
communications. “We don't even talk about this with the new technology;
[the security is] just built in, part of the technology,” Jackson said.

McEwen agreed the digital trunked system would provide the ultimate
solution. “It will give them the tools to be able to control and manage
this kind of problem,” he said.

In the meantime, the recently completed analog radio reprogramming
represents a bridge strategy that will enable the system to reject any
radio that doesn't have the proper ID. “We're changing it around so the
system will ask the radio if it has an ID and if the radio does not
present an ID, the system will not respond to it,” said Langford.

Considering the technology at hand, that's about as good as it's going
to get for the moment, he added.
“It's not some super encryption or anything; it's just what we can do
with the system as it stands now,” he said. “When we migrate the system
off VFH to T [trunked] band, each radio will be addressable, and if
somebody steals a radio we can turn it off and make the system blind to
it.”

Accidents Do Happen

While deliberate acts such as spewing racial epithets over the Chicago
Fire Department airwaves are unusual, accidental interference with
emergency radio operations does happen.

Vincent Stile, president of the Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials International [APCO] and director of radio
communications for the Suffolk County, N.Y., police department, recalled
an incident several years ago in the New York City suburbs where “one of
the police departments was being interfered with or somebody was getting
into them illegally.”

Turned out it was a taxi company. Stile, with the help of a local radio
shop that listened in on the interference, winnowed down the
possibilities and alerted law enforcement agencies.

“I don't think the interference was done intentionally, it was an
accident. They were on the frequency and didn't realize it,” Stile said.

Nevertheless, what was going on was “illegal as hell” and the police
took measures to make sure it stopped.

“Nassau County police and Garden City (N.Y.) police went in and
found these guys,” he said. “It must have been interesting. They went
in and confiscated all the equipment. I wish I could have been
there.”— Jim Barthold© 2004, PRIMEDIA Business Magazines & Media Inc.
http://iwce-mrt.com/ar/radio_racial_slurs_prompt/index.htm

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