[Cryptography] N. Korean radio broadcasts string of random numbers

Dave Horsfall dave at horsfall.org
Thu Sep 1 17:52:05 EDT 2016


On Tue, 30 Aug 2016, Bill Cox wrote:

> If by amateur radio, you mean [crypto over] ham radio, then I strongly 
> recommend you do not do that.  The FCC will be there in short order, 
> though some hams I know say they don't show up soon enough.

In Australia at least, encryption via Amateur radio is legal for remote 
control of repeaters, beacons, etc; I don't know about the rest of the 
world.  However, I have, cough cough, passed the occasional message using 
PGP...  Highly illegal, of course.

I had to switch off the local repeater VK2RWI when foul-mouthed idiots 
were abusing it; knowing that I was being recorded by said idiots, I had 
to change the lead-in code every so often (under Australian law, as the 
repeater keeper I was held responsible for all traffic, and it was my duty 
to switch it off).  As I dimly recall, it was a 3-byte prefix (a massive 
24 bits of security!), and I was going to use a rolling CRC-32 code, but I 
never got around to it (it was a bit much for the Z-80 at both ends).

-- 
Dave Horsfall DTM (VK2KFU)  "Those who don't understand security will suffer."


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