81–90 of 91 posts
"Numbers station" is a weird analogy, because the idea of a numbers station was to broadcast messages to undercover operatives in a way that can be received using unmodified (and therefore non-suspicious) household radio receivers. Here, it appears to be a rekeying system for specialized military gear.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah its not a number station at all.
I disagree? The point of a numbers station is that it broadcasts in the clear and anyone with a receiver can get it, but only people with the appropriate decryption key can make any use of it. Since it's broadcasting all the time, there's no need for steganography or covert transmission. That's exactly what a numbers station is. Where the article loses me is the implication that this is somehow sinister or beyond the…
"Numbers station" is a weird analogy, because the idea of a numbers station was to broadcast messages to undercover operatives in a way that can be received using unmodified (and therefore non-suspicious) household radio receivers. Here, it appears to be a rekeying system for specialized military gear.
You're assuming it requires specialized military gear, as opposed to consumer gear with a flashed firmware. I believe GPS L1 C/A subframe 4 is on the ordinary L1 C/A civil signal, which means commercial receivers can receive it. They just can't (ordinarily) decrypt it. But a few KB of extra code would change that. A pretty broad set of Android phones can receive this data, without even needing to reflash the GPS firm…
The author studied this supposition [code intended for mil gear] for some time and learned this.
On 26 May 2011, all 31 active GPS satellites switched to the
0xAA placeholder within just a few hours.
This rapid daily change perfectly matches the operational
rollout of the U.S. Over-the-Air Distribution (OTAD) network.Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're assuming it requires specialized military gear, as opposed to consumer gear with a flashed firmware. I believe GPS L1 C/A subframe 4 is on the ordinary L1 C/A civil signal, which means commercial receivers can receive it. They just can't (ordinarily) decrypt it. But a few KB of extra code would change that. A pretty broad set of Android phones can receive this data, without even needing to reflash the GPS firm…
> You're assuming it requires specialized military gear, as opposed to consumer gear with a flashed firmware. The author studied this supposition [code intended for mil gear] for some time and learned this. On 26 May 2011, all 31 active GPS satellites switched to the 0xAA placeholder within just a few hours. This rapid daily change perfectly matches the operational rollout of the U.S. Over-the-Air Distribution (OTAD)…
The raw data is a bit more than 1GB per annum.
The data of interest is 176 bits every 12.5 minutes for 19 years. That is, about 17MB of data. Possibly multiplied by the number of satellites, roughly thirty.
It's not big data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You're assuming it requires specialized military gear, as opposed to consumer gear with a flashed firmware. The author studied this supposition [code intended for mil gear] for some time and learned this. On 26 May 2011, all 31 active GPS satellites switched to the 0xAA placeholder within just a few hours. This rapid daily change perfectly matches the operational rollout of the U.S. Over-the-Air Distribution (OTAD)…
That doesn't really answer the question of whether it could be used to deliver "numbers station" type messages. Encrypted key material and enciphered messages should be indistinguishable. There are 18 bytes of high-entropy ciphertext that could be used for both purposes.
This is true. I suggest that I didn't answer that question because my comment was only addressing the below assertion.
>> You're assuming it requires specialized military gear, as opposed to consumer gear with a flashed firmware.
As for the numbers station reference in the article, that phrasing seems silly. I think it distracts a bit from the article.
> To make processing this massive dataset practical, we built a Julia pipeline to extract the bits directly into a DuckDB database. The raw data is a bit more than 1GB per annum. The data of interest is 176 bits every 12.5 minutes for 19 years. That is, about 17MB of data. Possibly multiplied by the number of satellites, roughly thirty. It's not big data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody is disputing that it is a legitimate choice. It is also legitimately off-putting. If their audience is into it though, good for them.
Honestly, I was surprised to see this take. Their tone just makes me miss the original The Intercept and other used-to-be-heavy-hitters. Were they also too punchy for you? (I sound possibly sarcastic, but am genuinely curious)
This may sound pre-judgmental, but a headline is an advertisement & marketing for the article. A headline can get someone in that might otherwise have skipped the article, but it can just as easily dissuade people who might otherwise be interested in the subject matter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I was surprised to see this take. Their tone just makes me miss the original The Intercept and other used-to-be-heavy-hitters. Were they also too punchy for you? (I sound possibly sarcastic, but am genuinely curious)
I read The Intercept rarely and never saw enough of them to form any kind of take on their “typical” headline-style. 404 Media has been popping off everywhere though—including here-since they launched. This may sound pre-judgmental, but a headline is an advertisement & marketing for the article. A headline can get someone in that might otherwise have skipped the article, but it can just as easily dissuade people who…
"Numbers station" is a weird analogy, because the idea of a numbers station was to broadcast messages to undercover operatives in a way that can be received using unmodified (and therefore non-suspicious) household radio receivers. Here, it appears to be a rekeying system for specialized military gear.