Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!usc!ucsd!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: MCMAHON%GRIN1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (McMahon,Brian D) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: What are Secure Lines? Message-ID: <15780@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 3 Jan 91 14:57:22 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 37 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 6, Message 1 of 8 In response to a question from Joe Broniszewski about "secure lines" referred to in Cliff Stoll's book, bill says: >There is no such beast. When the "spooks" want to talk turkey, they >use special telephones, not special telephone lines. But Lars Poulsen says: >I think Cliff was working for LLBL, i.e. DoE. They would qualify for >the STU-III program, so I think that's what he meant. Aha! That sounds plausible. I grew up an "overseas brat" on U.S. Army bases in Germany. AFN, the Armed Forces Network, was constantly running radio spots about OPSEC (OPerations SECurity), which among other things exhorted everyone to answer the phone with "this line is not secure" whenever appropriate. Since we were in Munich, home of the 66th Military Intelligence Group HQ and assorted other spook shops, some people actually took security seriously there. :-) Hardly everyone, though. There was a wonderful cartoon in the _Stars and Stripes_ newspaper for a while, called "Lt. Kadish." This was one of several "local" cartoon strips which appeared in the 'Stripes from time to time. In one cartoon, the left panel showed the Lieutenant in a phone booth asking, "Hello, S-2? Is this a secure line?" [Note: S-2 is the intelligence officer in a unit's staff] The middle panel showed a Soviet officer with headphones, and the right panel showed the S-2 saying, "It sure is." MI gets very little respect *within* the Army, too... :-) This could lead into several other telcom-related stories ... you may not want to get me started. :-) Brian McMahon Grinnell College Computer Services Grinnell, Iowa 50112 USA Voice: +1 515 269 4901 Fax: +1 515 269 4936