U.S. SELECTS THREE TO PRODUCE AND SERVICE NEW SECURE TELEPHONES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200950020-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 20
• Publication Date: March 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200950020-7
NEW YORK TIMES
2 7 March, 1985
U.S. Selects Three to Produce and Service
New Secure Telephones
By DAVID BURNHAM
spedsl to The New York Times
WASHINGTON, March 26 y- The
Federal Government today chose three
of the nation's largest communication
anies to producea new kind of se-
comp
cure telephone that the Government timately would allow criminal organi-
said would end most international and zations to operate without fear of law
corporate telephone eavesdropping enforcement wiretaps, 'he replied,
"That's a price we'll have to pay."
ext few years
th
.
e n
within
The phones, about the same size and Change in PhUosophy
weight as the multiline units now onut he said the N.S.A. decision to e-
many office desks, are expected to cost',
less than $2,000 each and to become a ve op the new family of relatively
ds. of thnn- i c eap secure telephone representa
h
d
. , ..-----
un
re
for
sands of workers in %j-ehhuu-- hilosophv "After considerable de-
private business.
bate we have decided that in order to
l
T
e
e
of the American
The selection phone and Telegraph company, the reduce the hemorMaxing o secret and
sensitive ormation to our enemies
d Motorola to build
RCA Corporation an and service the new generation of com- that we are willing to accept an erosion
puterized telephones was made by the i;+ our ability to collect intelligence
Deele said.
Mr
.
National Security Agency after years
_ ..,ent and a n a recent interview at the N.S.A s
coin -no
i
un
gn
six-month des
five of the nation's communication George Meade, Md., half way between
giants. The agency originally disclosed ' Washington and. Baltimore, Mr. Deeley
said he expected the new phones to be
be
O
r
cto
ch a system in
plan for su it .
The decision to encourage the pro- commercially available at about $2,000
T, each by April 1987.
I inexpensive secure telephones .~ ?~ unusual competition in which the
saris new amp si s by e mte igence
nanneis o coin- N.S.A. gave $1 million each to A.T.&T.,
ncy on vro ing c
age munications against eavesdroppmr:. G.T.E., I.T.T., Motorola and RCA. Be-
_. ?__-. ._ fate,.,,,.,:, fare the three finalists were selected,
Now the Government has decided to I tion, marketing and repair of the tele-
installation of equipment to protect a Nicholas F. Piazzola, chief of the
broad range of information, govern- task force, said the proposed phones
mental and commerical, against inter- would be one-tenth the size of the equip-
phones into the offices of 500,000 Gov- small number of officials, including the
eminent officials and military contrac- President, as well as Government con-
corporate executives within five years. I military projects. He said the new tele-
the total market may be closer to 2.6 phones would also be far easier to in-
stall and operate and be significantly
million.
? now think we can button HE U.S.
cheaper.
voice communications Y the end of We
lien Versions Cost $35,M0
mar _ ~e- hcn a me
curity and other Government organiza-
vate organizations would presumably
selves, the secure network will include
two "key management centers" ex-
used to provide a code setting for the
Government. The second center, to be
operated by a private company, will
provide the settings to institutions that
do no business with the Government.
x)nc a the.code setting is acquired by a
particular telephone, each call origi-
nating from it to any other such tele-
phone will be transmitted in a code
"Secure Telephone Unit III" or
"S.T.U. III." They measure 10 by 10 by
3 inches, weigh about 10 pounds and re-
quire less than 20 watts of power. The
plugged into any standard jack.
Constantly'Changing Codes
According to Mr. Piazzola, each tele-
hone will have several specially de-
signed computer chips that will trans-
form the user's voice into a digital
form, rearrange the order of these
digits into an apparently random order
and then prepare them for transmis-
sion. When the message is received by
a person with one of the new tele-
phones, the process is reversed. The
phones process the conversation so fast
that neither party is aware of any
delay.
For secrecy to be maintained, all
parties to a call must have the new
equipment. However, the new phones
can be used to carry on nonsecure con-
4G
secant o e N. .A. the nation's II tional steps required before the tele-
largest an most secretive intelligence phone will be available in the market-
a enc . place, such as testing the prototypes
Mr. Deelev contends that the agency and developing the production lines,
has firm evidence that viet union, will cost it another $44 million. After
other nations and a num r o oref that, Government agencies, military
omestic co rations are con- contractors and private companies
uctin various forms o clandestine that desire telephone security will pay
electronic survei lance that Dose a $2,000 or less for each unit. Earlier ver- '
t to t e on tern securi a sions have cost as much as $35,000.
Wiled States.
He said he was not certain about the
ultimate impact the new telephones
would have on the social and business
practices of all those who could afford
them. Asked, for example, whether the
Con`t-iiieci
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200950020-7
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200950020-7
? a
versations injolving regular to e-
phones. . ? 't
Mr. Piazzola was asked whether the
F.B.I. or local? law-en-
N.S.A., or the,
forcement agencies could secretly in-
tercepi.cony rsatir+ns cAR Tied on over
the new Lyle none, ? ?
"Because they change -their code
evvy tint you make a call," he re-
plied, ? it would be comp tatipnally
mind- ggling gfid 4phibitfsiy ex-
pensi*for even'the'met soppisticated
listener to eavesdrop on'any converA-01 so .
tion."
Mr. Piazzola said'thatbecause of the
constantly changing codes, an.O.ntelli-
gence service that obtained one of the
new telephones would not then be able
to intercept protected conversations.
"The system is designed so that!onlike
the current generation of secure teI-
phones, it will not be necessary to keep
the new ones under lock and key." he
said. 4
The official added that tie Govern-
ment'would impose some "reasonable
restrictions" on the exporting. of the
new telephones gut added, "It would
not damage the secLuritt of the system
if the 'ardware was obtained by an-
other country."
Without going into details"Mr. Pia-
zolla said the new telephones were de-
signed_to protect against tampering
"sg N can''t look into them and do re-
verse engineering,.
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200950020-7