Winnipeg city radio shop for police and fire illegally loaded software for decryption

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radioman2001

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Nothing new, happened over 20 years ago when some one posted the diagram of a dataslicer that could enable the decoding of MDT data. Not that Mot was a fault oh no, they never encrypted the data so it was easy to decode. Mot sent the FBI after this guy and he eventually died of a heart attack from all the stress of fighting this. Basically it was all a delay tactic while Mot reflashed all the terminals with some sort of weak encryption.
 

chrismol1

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I thought back in the days select depot tools were used by authorized repair centers not just on a few computers in Juarez or plantation. Just like the CPS with no software protections, the only thing stopping it from moving quickly is the slow transfer of a USB 1.0. I think the old days are coming to an end. In a few years anyone downloading a fresh copy of CPS/depot/whatever will click install.exe and faced with a popup that states "Insert license key, internet connection required" any firmware/update will required license keys
 

chrismol1

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Nothing new, happened over 20 years ago when some one posted the diagram of a dataslicer that could enable the decoding of MDT data. Not that Mot was a fault oh no, they never encrypted the data so it was easy to decode. Mot sent the FBI after this guy and he eventually died of a heart attack from all the stress of fighting this. Basically it was all a delay tactic while Mot reflashed all the terminals with some sort of weak encryption.

Wasnt this some related to the rodney king MDTs messages someone picked up
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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Nothing new, happened over 20 years ago when some one posted the diagram of a dataslicer that could enable the decoding of MDT data. Not that Mot was a fault oh no, they never encrypted the data so it was easy to decode. Mot sent the FBI after this guy and he eventually died of a heart attack from all the stress of fighting this. Basically it was all a delay tactic while Mot reflashed all the terminals with some sort of weak encryption.
Bill Cheek - RIP
 

MTS2000des

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Looks like Homeland Security works for Motorola now.
What is far reaching about this is how a private corporation can assert so much power over a public employee. Sure, if one steals trade secrets or IP and profits off it, fair game. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

But the idea that a company can merely accuse someone with little/no evidence can be detrimental and life changing. This guy's career is essentially over, he will most likely have to spend his 401K and sell everything he owns just to pay legal expenses defending himself. He may win the battle, but who ultimately won the war?

The message is clear: we are a bully and will use whatever we can to win. We have money and influence in all the right places. You (the working man) are in our gunsights, whatcha gonna do?

MSI isn't the only one doing this. Look at how Apple uses ICE to seize small businesses shipment of repair parts, claiming they are IP infringing, and demand essentially ransom payments and threaten to sue small repair businesses. Bottom line: Apple wants to end 3rd party repair, and they get to use their paid stool pigeons (the US Government) to do it. Say it ain't so.
 

chrismol1

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So whats the big dig at releasing this now?
Took someone 6 yrs to tell someone who cared- how about charging this employee for sitting on it 6 yrs who more than likely used the stuff and only came forward when they were switching to Harris-over a system that hasnt been used since 2017 for flashes done 5+ yrs ago? obviously this snitch guy was a moto fanboy
 

slicerwizard

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Nothing new, happened over 20 years ago when some one posted the diagram of a dataslicer
Uh, no.

that could enable the decoding of MDT data. Not that Mot was a fault oh no, they never encrypted the data so it was easy to decode. Mot sent the FBI after this guy and he eventually died of a heart attack
Uh, no.

from all the stress of fighting this. Basically it was all a delay tactic while Mot reflashed all the terminals with some sort of weak encryption.
That's a really bad summary of the Bill Cheek saga...
 

allend

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These charges seem really odd. Why if you were a radio shop engineer or you managed employee's why would you not pay for Motorola software or firmware or flashcode upgrades. If you work for a company and you are responsible for licensing then you just stay compliant. Very odd and strange. Said he was radio buff and loved the system which I think he managed or worked for. Very odd. Then being charged for all of these crimes or whatever. So what if he managed the encryption keys and listened or whatever.

Sounds like one of the employee's had it in for the boss and knew they were using either hacked software and flashcode upgrades and sold him to the farm. Wonder if the shop manager was stealing money from the shop and said he was paying Motorola for this stuff. Interesting
 

Project25_MASTR

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These charges seem really odd. Why if you were a radio shop engineer or you managed employee's why would you not pay for Motorola software or firmware or flashcode upgrades. If you work for a company and you are responsible for licensing then you just stay compliant. Very odd and strange. Said he was radio buff and loved the system which I think he managed or worked for. Very odd. Then being charged for all of these crimes or whatever. So what if he managed the encryption keys and listened or whatever.

Sounds like one of the employee's had it in for the boss and knew they were using either hacked software and flashcode upgrades and sold him to the farm. Wonder if the shop manager was stealing money from the shop and said he was paying Motorola for this stuff. Interesting

What is stranger is that currently firmware upgrades on the APX line are "complimentary" with a CPS subscription. I hear there is a move to go back to the pay to stay current arrangement in firmware. I'm still thinking of all the havoc that occurs when I get infrastructure back with a newer release than it was compared to when I sent it. I can only imagine the stress the current firmware rollout rates occur with system managers who insist on vetting every firmware release to ensure it is problem free prior to rolling it out.
 

Giddyuptd

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These charges seem really odd. Why if you were a radio shop engineer or you managed employee's why would you not pay for Motorola software or firmware or flashcode upgrades. If you work for a company and you are responsible for licensing then you just stay compliant. Very odd and strange. Said he was radio buff and loved the system which I think he managed or worked for. Very odd. Then being charged for all of these crimes or whatever. So what if he managed the encryption keys and listened or whatever.

Sounds like one of the employee's had it in for the boss and knew they were using either hacked software and flashcode upgrades and sold him to the farm. Wonder if the shop manager was stealing money from the shop and said he was paying Motorola for this stuff. Interesting


What I was thinking. Either the employee or other person seen first hand them self which I doubt the acts bring done or said person them self also used illegal stuff to read the radio and see or the person went out of their command and to someone else to program their radio.

This is why I believe in locking all the code plugs on our stuff.

In a agency for government it isn't hard to purchase and get bid on software through a dealer so it baffles me why he would do such.

One thing other techs need to be careful of is buying old surplus or online if your budget is crap and local political people don't wanna spend on new. Be very weary of that radio ever being touched by any illegal software. They will know and have means to know reading the radio with a separate program I've yet to see talked about that gives them the data on its life.
 

slicerwizard

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"The kits unscramble the encrypted messages that pass between mainframe computers at police and fire departments and those onboard computers, or mobile data terminals (MDT), you see in the front seats of police cars these days."

<cough>bullchips<cough>
 

radioman2001

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Quote"
What is missing? The cancer part or the software part?

I am not going to spoon feed anyone on this "saga" as some call it. It did happen, and he did die as a result of the stress from being investigated and sued. There were incidents where personal information from MDT transmissions were released to the press causing a shxxstorm (not Rodney King as I remember, more along the line of personal info about a rape on L.I. ) I actually saw that info after the fact so it was real. The PD is was working for at the time was furious about the fact that som geek had built a HARDWARE circuit not software to decode their private "UNENCRYPTED" transmissions.
If you are still interested in this sago go search for it, there is plenty of info out there about it.
 

radioman2001

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One actually bought an MDT for his car and found how to boot it into a diagnostic mode to "spill the beans".

The terminal did have diagnostic command, but I never seen it used to monitor channels. It was more of a test command and you could send messages back and forth between 2 terminals.
 

kv5e

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The narrative from the *spokesman* about how this enthusiast endangers national security reminds me what the pheds said about Kevin Mitnick at his hax0rs trial.....
"He can dial in to NORAD by whistling and start a nuclear war!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

What a total crock of BRAVO SIERRA
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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One actually bought an MDT for his car and found how to boot it into a diagnostic mode to "spill the beans".

The terminal did have diagnostic command, but I never seen it used to monitor channels. It was more of a test command and you could send messages back and forth between 2 terminals.
What was demonstrated to me, a hack that allowed the terminal to grab data off the air until the memory filled , then manually dump the contents to the screen. In my opinion not very practical to monitor in real time.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk
 

902

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bb


I worked from mid 70's to mid 90's as well. It was great company up until Bob retired. Then it just became rudderless, reinventing itself, discouraging corporate messages to loyal long time employees. At the end, Motorola forfeited a huge $40-50 million PS radio/transit deal because of corporate paranoia about the transit partner. Being in the midst of it just let all my steam out.
Their Metrocom stuff was always about 10 degrees off the beam when some of the regular off-the-shelf solutions would have sufficed. I found myself working on several of the transit systems near where I lived and had to make special jigs with their unique firmware that did "request to talk" and put trunking of conventional channels into the personality board rather than into a site controller. It was just odd, and no one really wanted to work on it because it was so "SP." Then again, their war against TETRA deployment in the US didn't help them in that market. I think they became their own worst enemy by attempting to control deployment of technologies rather than simply meet the needs of their customers.

Their primary competitor has a vast knowledge base and lots of green radio experience and also inherited a solid protocol from GE. I see them as a formidable threat.

As for cellphones, that was also a bad fit. In one bay, we had a fire truck getting a Syntor X, and in another was a limo. Chances are that the limo also had a 900 MHz MESMR interconnect phone with a full duplex Maxtrac, too. They were trying to compete at too many levels and rather should have focused on their core business.
 
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