Yesterday on the satellite broadcasts: a secret test of a missile in the aerospace industry * Communication expert Avi Weiss: The cobbler goes barefoot
Interpretation: The cobbler walks barefoot
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Avi Weiss, an independent media consultant, comments on the affair (details about it - later in the news):
A secret Israeli experiment with precision missiles broadcast to the enemy in real time via the television satellites is not a joke, but a sad reality of the "neighboring country" in which we live. The launch from the Palmachim base, which was transmitted via civilian broadcast satellites in an unencrypted manner, was carried out due to a huge security failure. This is not the first time, and unfortunately not the last, that from a country that actually invented the world of encryption and leads it in the world, the best-kept secrets escape to all enemies and adversaries, without any encryption. The problem is more serious, when the world center for encryption on satellites and for TV broadcasts from satellites is located in Israel. It's hard to believe how the shoemaker goes barefoot, and boasts about it, and then sweeps the problem under the rug. What is good for all the citizens of the country, both cable company customers and YES customers, is probably not good enough for the security mechanisms of the State of Israel. The cables and YES encrypt the broadcasts not because they are supposed to hide any secrets, but it is better to make sure that the customers only get what they pay for. no more. But in order for it to work, "blue and white" encryption and coding systems were installed by the cables and YES. Several Israeli companies are in this field, with development centers in Israel. I will mention only two prominent ones: 1. The development center of Harmonic Lightwaves Israel in the Science Industries Center in Caesarea. 2. NDS Company in the Center of Science Industries in Mount Hahotsavim in Jerusalem. These two companies are world leaders in the field, the first in the production of the hardware infrastructure and the second in cards and protection applications. According to Dr. Bet Erez, VP of NDS and director of the Israel and Latin America region, the treatment of the security issue of the television in all its aspects, including the encryption, is done entirely in Israel. NDS started in the world with the subject of encryption, and was established by three partners in conjunction with "Yade" - the economic company of the Weizmann Institute. The company was acquired by News Corp who came to it in the UK, where the company was headquartered in the 90s. The idea of establishing the company was based on the encryption model of Adi Shamir from the Weizmann Institute, who was one of the leaders in the world of encryption. Later the goal was to encrypt a transmission and open it to the public. This was done with the help of a smart card. Today, the encryption is done in the switchboard, in the HeadEnd of the broadcast provider, such as a cable provider, satellite, DSL, and the compass material on an NDS infrastructure. If we are the world champions in satellite traffic encryption, why do we look so bad when it comes to the moment of truth? See you in the next default…
(Ami Ettinger, Maariv and Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz)
It was probably one of the most amazing omissions in Israel's history, an omission that is hard to believe happened in reality: a top secret missile test by the defense establishment was accidentally broadcast yesterday to the entire Middle East via a regular civilian satellite, thereby accidentally revealing some of the country's most closely guarded secrets, so that millions of viewers from Iran to Libya could watch them without interruption on their television sets.
The experiment failed
The affair was revealed yesterday on Channel 10 by reporter Alon Ben-David. It began yesterday morning, when the heads of the defense establishment and the defense industries gathered at a top-secret facility somewhere in Israel, dressed in festive white shirts, with the aim of watching a classified missile test conducted for them by the Aerospace Industry.
Among the senior officials who gathered in the control room and the screening room next to him, there were also three IDF generals - Deputy Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Commander of the Land Arm Yeftah Ron-Tal, and the commander of the brother-in-law, Eyal Ben-Reuven. Next to them sat the Deputy Commander of the Navy, Brigadier General Eli Marom.
In the control room, which is the holy of holies of the security establishment, the images from the test were shown on television screens, as well as additional data: the map of the test area, complete information about the missile's flight such as range and speed (telemetry data), and even precise landmarks of all the weapon systems that participated in an experiment.
Just need a plate of "Yes"
But for some reason, a television camera was also placed in the room, which recorded everything that was happening, as well as a microphone that recorded the conversations between those present. And everything the camera recorded - was transmitted live in real time to a normal commercial satellite, without the sensitive information being encrypted in any way. The result: anyone with a normal satellite dish costing NIS 800-700, just like hundreds of thousands of Yes customers in Israel, could receive the broadcast and be exposed to the hidden security secrets.
The experiment managers, who were convinced that they were in a secure and secret area, spoke freely to each other and passed on sensitive information. Besides the secret data that was photographed and mentioned out loud, those present in the room also exchanged secret access passwords to the computers of the defense industries with loud shouts. Ironically, after the experiment manager asked one of the attendees to tell him a computer password, he called out to him: "It's okay, no one is listening."
The omission was completely exposed by accident, when the antennas of Channel 10 picked up the secret transmission during a "routine scan of the sky". The channel sent the classified material to the military censor, which rejected parts of it for broadcast, even though it had already been most likely picked up by the intelligence agencies in the Arab countries, which regularly listen to all visible satellite transmissions in the Middle East.
It is not yet clear why it was decided to transmit the launch live, and to do so without coding, and also on a normal civilian satellite, the kind that serves television subscribers all over the Middle East. According to experts in the field of satellites in the private market, it appears that for a relatively modest fee it was possible to encode the transmission of the security system, on the same satellite itself, thus minimizing the damage.
who is to blame?
It was difficult for the defense establishment to point to a single culprit last night, and this is because many factors in Israel are responsible for information security: starting with the defense industries that carried out the experiment (the director general of the aviation industry, Moshe Keret, was seen among those present in the control room), which all employ security officers, through the Ministry of Defense They are overseen by a separate information security organization (known as the IDF), and by the IDF Field Security Department.
The astonishment in the Ministry of Defense when it became clear how the information was leaked was enormous. A security leak of this magnitude has not happened in the system for a long time. In other missile tests, such as the Arrow missile system, the defense establishment did not even allow the tests to be recorded, but only released censored segments to the media. Even when journalists tried to cover much less classified experiments, the security establishment replied in the negative, on the grounds that they were state secrets.
The IDF and the Ministry of Defense also had difficulty assessing the extent of the damage last night. After a few hours of initial confusion, the security establishment claimed that the leaked information was not particularly secret and that the damage caused was "tolerable".
The Aerospace Industry was satisfied with the following response: "The Aerospace Industry today conducted an experiment with a long-range and accurate artillery projectile. The experiment was conducted off the coast of Israel. Not all the goals of the experiment were achieved. The Aerospace Industry is developing the projectile, because according to the assessment there is a global market for such systems, which allow precise hitting of quality targets, as was proven in the war in Iraq."
The order to stop the transmission in the control room of the missile test, yesterday. Television photo: Channel 10
Owners of standard satellite dishes - in Israel but also in other countries in the Middle East - were able in the last two days to receive broadcasts that included details about a secret missile being developed by the Aerospace Industry, a computer password of one of the participants in the missile test, conversations in the control room of the test and photographs of senior officials in the defense establishment. An internal, unencrypted TV broadcast that recorded the missile test was picked up by Channel 10 and revealed yesterday by military reporter Alon Ben David.
Last night, the IAI management had difficulty explaining the omission and were surprised by the interception of the internal transmission, which was intended to connect two control rooms that participated in the experiment. Immediately after the reporter turned to the security system requesting a response, an order was given in the recorded control room - at the Melam plant of the Aerospace Industry, which develops the missile - to stop the transmissions. The security establishment exerted heavy pressure on Channel 10 to prevent the broadcast of the article, and the details of the missile, as well as the faces of some of the test participants, were censored from the footage.
However, last night the aerospace industry tried to downplay the importance of the affair. "It's just nonsense. This is a completely (unclassified) CBS project," the company's security officer told Haaretz. "We do dozens of missile tests. So what? You don't run with every communication experiment. We don't even have a customer for this missile. If it was something related to the IDF, I assure you that there was IDF encryption of the launch." According to him, the interception of the broadcast is now being examined: "We had to take care of all internal matters, but only today will we examine what happened and if someone messed up."
The official announcement of the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) stated: "IAI launched a long-range and accurate artillery projectile, in a test conducted off the coast of the State of Israel. Not all the goals of the experiment were achieved." According to a company source, the term "projectile" refers to all types of missiles, however the use of "projectile" instead of "missile" is unusual, and indicates confusion in the industry following the disclosure.
The broadcasts of the preparations for the experiment were picked up by chance by a Channel 10 technician as part of a routine frequency scan of the "Amos" communication satellite. The captured images were broadcast live from the Melam control room, and were taken by a team that was brought into the control room to broadcast the preparations for the experiment to another control room, at another site. The transmissions from the second control room, which were encrypted, were not received.
The technicians showed the pictures to the military reporter, who asked to continue recording the broadcasts. For 48 hours the preparations for the launch of the missile were taken up, which was finally carried out yesterday at 11:30 am. According to the plan, the missile was supposed to hit the target three minutes after its launch, however, when two minutes passed from the launch, it fell into the sea. In the words that were said in the control room, and which were included in the article yesterday: "I need your password for the computer (laughs) no one hears, everyone closed their ears" (later the password was given); Technical and geographical data of the missile and finally also the instruction to stop the transmissions: "Received by someone, request to take down the transmissions".
The presence of the senior officials at the test - including Aerospace Industries CEO Moshe Kerat, Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Gabi Ashkenazi and Commander of the Land Arms Command Major General Yiftach Ron Tal - can testify to the high expectations and the importance the defense establishment attaches to the missile. However, the security officer of the industry claims that the company invites senior IDF officials to be present at the tests to demonstrate the quality of the missiles to them, even though the IDF does not have the money to purchase them.
Amnon Barzilai
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