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CLANDESTINE TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
The RESISTER
The Political Warfare Journal of the Special
Forces Underground
Volume VI
Summer / Autumn 2000
Published Quarterly by John P. Zenger Press,
LTD.
CLANDESTINE TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
(Part I)
by "Sparks"
Communications is an essential element in
any operation. Effective C3 (Command,
Control, Communications) is the key to a
mission's success. Fortunately, there are
several varieties of commercial,
off-the-shelf equipment that is either
usable "as is", or capable of being modified
to meet any set of operational requirements.
Operatives have a variety of systems at
their disposal: telecommunications, data
communications/Internet, and RF. Elements of
different systems may be combined to produce
a custom C3 package tailored to your
specific cell's needs. Future articles in
this series will cover various aspects of
clandestine communications.
I will start by detailing the various pieces
of equipment that a communications
specialist will need to acquire in order to
establish and maintain a cell's C3
capability via the telecommunications
(telecom) network. The telecom network
offers a readily available communications
medium that requires little in the way of
specialized or expensive equipment to
access. All of the following equipment is
available on the open market at this time,
and would normally be found in the
possession of an electronics technician or
ham radio "hobbyist", thus offering a
convenient cover.
The one tool brought about by the recent
deregulation of the telecom industry in the
United States that any cell will find
extremely useful is the prepaid calling
card. Available in denominations ranging
from 15 fo 200 minutes, these cards are
available at any retail establishment for a
reasonable number of FRNs (Federal Reserve
Notes a/k/a "Cash"). Provided proper
Operations Security (OPSEC) measures are
maintained prepaid calling cards offer a
secure means of communications. Card calls
are the only means in which a data (modem)
call can be made over a pay phone. Otherwise
after the initial rate period is up on a
coin call, the resultant coin collection
signal and request recording will disrupt
communications. This is important, as a
laptop computer and modem can form the basis
of a secure communications terminal.
Care must be taken in the selection and
purchase of prepaid calling cards.
Obviously, FRNs are the only recommended
method of payment. Selection of prepaid
calling cards is just as important as means
of purchase. Before you commit to the
purchase of a specific card, examine it
carefully. Avoid those cards that state on
the package that they must be activated
before use. Said cards are also identifiable
by a magnetic stripe on the back of the
card. This means that at the time of
purchase, the card is swiped through the POS
terminal by the cashier, and the card
company's computer is contacted by the store
to indicate said card was legitimately
purchased. This is intended to eliminate
service theft. It also generates a record of
where the card is purchased.
Activation-required cards are generally sold
by common retail chains. To find cards that
don't require activation, check independent
gas stations and convenience stores;
particularly those in "ethnic"
neighborhoods. Once purchased, the card
should be used for mission-related
communications only, and disposed of in a
conspicuous place with a few minutes of time
remaining on the card. The aim is for
another individual to "find" the card, and
use the remaining time available on it. This
will help counteract traffic analysis
attempts on the account. It is also
advisable to commit the access number and
codes to memory; temporarily caching the
card until it is required to be disposed of.
If the card is found on one's person during
a search, it is a simple matter for an
investigator to request an accounting report
of all calls made on the card.
The common numeric pager is another one of
those everyday items that arouse no
suspicion, and can be used for secure
communications. For around $100 or less a
pager can be purchased with a year's worth
of service with no questions asked and no ID
required. The 10 digit numeric display can
be used to send one way messages via simply
generated numeric codes. The use of codes
for brevity on paging systems is extremely
common, and arouses no suspicion. A book
entitled Pager Power is currently in print,
and is a code book that is capable of
generating any message required. This book
can be used in conjunction with one time
pads for your secure messaging needs. Simply
take the number off the pad, and add to or
subtract from the number indicated for the
word or phrase.
Pager communications are easily intercepted
not only by investigative agencies but also
by communications hobbyists, in spite of it
being a violation of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act. This makes the
use of encryption on such systems a
necessity. The ease of interception by
commercial off the shelf equipment, a $5 (in
parts) circuit, and software available over
the Internet opens up an interesting
possibility for clandestine communications.
The requirements are the assembly of a pager
Communications Intelligence (COMINT)
station, the location of what phone
exchanges (or numbers in an exchange) are
used for pager service, and the paging
system radio frequency used for said
numbers. Once this is accomplished, it is an
easy manner to identify which capcodes
(pager ID codes sent over the air to
identify which message is intended for which
pager/customer) are assigned to which phone
numbers. Using the pager COMINT station,
capcodes can be flagged for traffic logging,
with a cell's communications identified from
the usual account traffic by a certain
preamble. While the message will also be
displayed on the pager of the customer whose
account you are appropriating, it will be
ignored as a "wrong number". Such "mistakes"
are common enough that they can be used to
establish a clandestine communications
network among the normal traffic on a
system. By using this technique with several
different accounts and preamble codes, a
high level of security is maintained. The
key to success is in not abusing a
particular account and causing the customer
to contact the service under the impression
that his capcode was accidentally assigned
to another account. (This is an uncommon,
but not rare occurrence.) Further details on
this method will be elaborated on in a
future installment.
A lineman's test set (butt set) rounds out
the foundation of one's telecom kit. This is
a ruggedized telephone used by telephone
company installers and technicians. It
features alligator clips to enable it to
clip onto any one of several test points on
the telephone network, and a monitor mode
that enables "on hook" monitoring of a line
to check its' status and activity state
before use. These devices start at about
$100 new from various mail order and supply
houses, but have been seen at hamfests and
electronics flea markets for less than that
amount. While the genuine article is nice to
have, it can be improvised by taking any
standard one-piece phone and replacing the
cord's modular plug with alligator clips on
the red and green wires. Test points on the
phone system are known by various terms:
cans, pedestals, bridging heads, and
b-boxes. They are used for either
troubleshooting lines, providing customer
service connection points, and acting as
"demarcation points" between customer and
telephone company wiring. By hooking into
any of these test points, dial tone can be
acquired and phone calls made. These test
points are usually unlocked, and "secured"
with either a 7/16" bolt , or a 5/32" tamper
proof allen wrench screw. A standard
nut-driver will unfasten the 7/16" bolt,
although electronics supply houses sell "can
wrench" designed specifically for the job.
Tamper-proof allen wrenches, an allen wrench
with a hold in the shaft, are available
through electronic tool supply houses,
auto-parts stores, and computer shows.
For Clandestine telecom access wireless
phone jack systems appear to have great
potential. They cost about $100 and consist
of a base unit and an extension unit. The
base unit is plugged into any AC outlet near
an existing phone line and connected to the
line. The extension unit is plugged into any
other outlet and provides a phone line
without the need to run cable. As long as
both outlets are on the same transformer
feed from the electric company, you should
be able to hook this system up to a phone
line and AC outlet in a utility room, and
then go to another room with an AC outlet
and have a phone connection. This could even
be extended from one building to another
provided both buildings were on the same
transformer feed. With the electric company
bridging transformers for remote meter
reading, the range could be longer.
A similar arrangement can also be
accomplished with the use of a cordless
phone. A cordless phone powered by a
gel-cell battery and hooked up to a phone
line would allow an individual to use said
line without having to be physically present
at the hookup. Modern cordless phones use
spread-spectrum digital communications on
900 Mhz. and 2.4 Ghz. frequency ranges which
offer 1000 yard range and protection against
casual interception.
When clandestinely obtaining tele-communications
service, the temptation to commit toll fraud
must be resisted. The calling of a toll-free
number to a prepaid calling card service on
a clandestine hook-up will not be noticed.
The appearance of an unknown number by a
customer on his bill has the possibility of
being noticed; with a resultant complaint
made to customer service. One should
especially avoid targeting the phone service
of an enemy agent or collaborator, as it is
far more beneficial to use their lines as a
source of intelligence.
Laptops and modems are yet another useful
tool. With good encryption software such as
PGP, they offer an extremely secure mean of
communication. While a brand-new
state-of-the-art laptop can cost upwards of
$3000 depending on what you buy, but you
don't need state-of-the-art. All you really
need is something that you can hook a modem
to, run terminal software, and do a little
data storage. One can find older laptops for
under $100 in the classified ad sections of
newspapers and in your locale's ad paper.
Hamfests and computer shows are also a good
source. I recently saw an 8088 laptop at one
for $15. Just make sure the unit either has
an internal modem (even a 1200 will do) or
has an RS-232 or PCMCIA port to add an
external modem. If you're going the external
RS-232 modem route, the modem will need to
be able to run off batteries. Make sure that
the power supply that goes with the modem is
a DC outlet supply. Many modems use AC
output supplies, and the modem will be much
more difficult to convert to battery
operation. Fore a while there were these
"pocket modems" being sold which were the
size of a pack of cigarettes and ran off a 9
volt battery. We haven't seen them offered
lately, but they still should be available
on the used and surplus equipment market.
For complete connectivity, acquire an
acoustic coupler for you modem. This device
attaches to the handset of any phone and
plugs into your modem's RJ-11 jack. It is
essential for modeming from pay phones;
where in most instances you don't have
access to a terminal block or phone jack.
Konexx
http://www.konexx.com/ makes the "Konexx
Koupler". It plugs into the RJ-11 jack of a
modem and provides acoustic coupling between
the modem and a telephone hand set.
According to company literature it operates
up to 26.4K baud on electronic phones, and
up to 2400 baud on pay phones and other
phones that use a carbon microphone.
In the next installment I will give an
overview of the telecommunications network
as it relates to clandestine communications,
and provide information on telecom
operational techniques; including data
communications.
(Pages 81 -83)
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