IRA Crypto Article

[John R T Brazier]

Dear All,

Anyone seen the below (found in the March issue of 'Business & Technology=
',
which I've only just got to through the stack)? I can't remember seeing i=
t
appear here, and it seems odd. Why has this story appeared now (with the
DTI about to make pronouncements), and what are the details (ie are the
Army really keeping informant lists in a breakable system)? Are we talkin=
g
about Excel-type password protection? Does the story have any accuracy? =


Cheers,

John B.
www.proproco.co.uk

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IRA cracks Army encryption codes


The IRA has broken through the low-level encryption being used by the
British Army, raising fears that it can now access stored information tha=
t
was previously thought to be safe.

It stole Army information, including four computer disks, from a Welsh
Guards intelligence agent, named as Sergeant RA Davies by Republican
newspaper An Phoblacht.  In a story on 29th January, the paper claimed th=
e
IRS had intercepted British intelligence documents and was attempting to
access the disks.

Sources claim the IRA has now cracked the encryption on the disks, which
held spreadsheets, reports, analyses, names and addresses.  It is believe=
d
the data included a list of Army informants.

Intelligence experts have long claimed that the IRA was already capable o=
f
accessing Inland Revenue and DSS computers, usually through internal
sympathisers.  But this latest incident shows the terrorists have the
expertise to break low-level computerised protection.

Neil Barrett, principal consultant at Bull Information Systems and an
expert in computer security and information warfare, said "If true, it's
handed the IRA an object lesson on how to break these computer systems.  =
It
doesn't mean it will be able to break all systems, but it does mean that
the threat level has rocketed up.  It also makes it very apparent that th=
e
IRA is willing to exercise a level of skill in hacking that it wasn't
publicly known to have had in the past."

An MoD spokesman in Northern Ireland said: "We cannot comment on
operational matters, but the incident is being investigated. The
information is of the lowest classification as far as we are aware."

An Phoblacht claimed the IRA also seized a manual called Operational
Intelligence Aide Memoire, which describes two databases used by the Army=

in Northern Ireland: Crucible, for general purpose intelligence, and
Vengeful, for vehicle intelligence.