[Cryptography] Russian "ERA" cryptophone fiasco

John Denker jsd at av8n.com
Tue Mar 29 23:05:12 EDT 2022


Hi --

Does anybody here know anything about the Russian "ERA" cryptophone???

I ask because it seems we are watching infosec failure on a grand
scale. It was FAPSI's job to arrange Russian tactical communications
with high security and availability, and also to break Ukrainian
communications.[1]

It is widely reported that they failed coming and going:
> Era is a super expensive cryptophone system that Russia introduced
> in 2021 with great fanfare. It guaranteed work "in all conditions"
> [2]

... however ...

> The lack of foresight involved in the introduction of the Russian
> army’s new Era encrypted-communications system [...]. Supposedly
> secure, it relies on 3G towers—which Russia destroyed when it
> invaded Ukraine. Because the system is simply not working, Russian
> officers have to communicate in open speech by cellphone, as gleeful
> Ukrainian volunteers listen in. [3]

Uhhhh, why do cleartext cellphones work if the towers are down? At
what point do we start to disbelieve what we are told about this? And
isn't it a bit odd and a bit unwise for people to brag about such
exploits before the war is over?

Despite the alleged "fanfare" I have not been able to find nontrivial
information about the ERA phone. The following is what little I have
come up with.

I surmise that the name refers to the ERA Technopolis (технополисе
«ЗРА»).[4] Technopolis is a fancy name for industrial park. It might
imply /military/ industrial park; I'm not sure. Russia has several.[5]
This one is called "ЭРА" which AFAICT is not an intialism; it just
means "era" as in "epoch".

> Era Technopolis is the Russian Army’s most ambitious R&D project
> coming up in a small resort town near the Black Sea
>
> Moscow: On 25 June 2018, President Vladimir Putin signed Decree No 364
> outlining the goals set before the Era Military Innovation
> Technopolis, an R&D centre being built near the Black Sea resort town
> of Anapa. The centre will be run by the ministry of defence (MoD) but
> utilise the principle of military-civilian partnership. Construction
> at the 17-hectare (42 acre) site, formerly a MoD resort, began last
> spring [[i.e. 2018]]. [6]

Location:
https://www.google.com/maps?ll=44.907825676193724,37.32640589774648&z=7

More generally there is a history of Russian-made cryptophones going
back many years, but I don't know much about that, either.

---------------------

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAPSI

[2] https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1500973926436020226

[3] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/putin-doesnt-realize-how-much-warfare-has-changed/627600/

[4] https://www.era-tehnopolis.ru/
     https://www.era-tehnopolis.ru/partners/

[5] https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/2021-09-23-advanced-military-technology-in-russia-bendett-et-al.pdf

[6] https://forceindia.net/cover-story/lofty-goals/


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