Encryption made for police and military radios may be easily cracked
1 min read
Summary
Researchers have discovered a second backdoor in an encryption standard used by law enforcement, military and intelligence agencies worldwide, this time in the end-to-end encryption (E2EE) algorithm endorsed as a fix for the first backdoor.
The original backdoor, discovered in 2023, was in the TETRA algorithm developed in the 1990s, while the newly discovered issue is in the E2EE algorithm designed to work on top of the TETRA algorithm to bolster security for sensitive communications.
The E2EE algorithm is expensive to implement, and is commonly used in radios by high-level security teams such as special forces and covert operations.
However, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which developed both algorithms, endorses the E2EE and may have caused wider uptake of the flawed standard.
It is not known who is using the E2EE algorithm, and if any users are aware of the vulnerabilities.
