satellite phone scramblers At the height of the Cold War, with the "space race" well under way and satellite technology growing by leaps and bounds yearly, there was a general sense of paranoia on both the U.S side and the Soviet side regarding spyware. The fears were born out of the abilities of satellites to capture differing kinds of sensitive materials ranging from space-based photographs to the interception of phone conversations. With the cooperation from the rest of the English speaking countries throughout the world (Such as Canada, Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, etc.) The United States' NSA department set up a vast computer & telecommunications network named Echelon. With an estimated 1,000 (+) satellites orbiting the earth, there is a constant flow of data of all shapes and sizes. This data ranges from common cable television signals to the most sensitive of communications between/within governments. In the case of the transferring of the latter, more sensitive materials, there has to be a way in which the sender/receiver can protect the transfer from being monitored by unwanted sources. With Echelon, data flows across a private network to Fort Meade, Maryland, where NSA supercomputers breakdown the endless strings of data being bounced around from one satellite to another. These supercomputers are able to pick up on certain key phrases or names such as "terrorist attack" so that the proper authorities can investigate and act if deemed necessary. Although this process that is often referred to as "Big Brother" might seem like an invasion of privacy, it is an absolute necessity for security purposes in this, the technological age. Monitoring systems such as Echelon are somewhat common knowledge in that they exist, so it is only natural that those people wishing to pass sensitive materials without them being picked up by an Echelon type system would look to develop a form of defense against it. The most common defense to satellite monitoring is through the use of a scrambler. For instance, consider the current situation in the Middle East, more specifically, the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. It is believed that Bin Laden has/had an Inmarsat Mini-M mobile satellite phone that he uses/used to contact associates when necessary. It is relatively easy to pick up on a satellite phone call, making it necessary for the user to scramble the call. Satellite phone scramblers basically code the audio waves so that they either mask the content, or morph the voice. (Morphing the voice is an important feature because if someone like the U.S government has any verified audio samples they can match it to a voice on a phone.) As it is, if you have the right resources at your fingertips, it is possible to descramble a scrambled satellite phone line in a matter of seconds. (Something Echelon is more than capable of) Although it is possible to descramble scrambled satellite phone lines with the proper resources at your disposal, there are other ways in which to scramble a line that are not so easily dealt with. What makes these "other ways" more difficult to descramble? They don't use a standard digital encryption of decryption. Instead, they employ one of the following scrambling techniques: Camouflage approach: This technique makes radio transmissions sound like background noise making it near impossible to decipher what exactly is being said. Multiline / Multifrequency: Utilizes many different phone lines/frequencies, (generally around 10) switching between them every fraction of a second. In order for it to work, the sender and receiver must synchronize with one another so as to keep the connection alive. (Echelon can still break this satellite phone scramble if it has access to all lines over which the connection is based; which it generally does) ============================================================================ > > > Compare a satellite cell phone to a standard SATELLITE PHONE ============================================================================

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