COMSEC - Who's Listening? How Do You Know?

 

Radio in the Garden (photo by V.A. McMillan)

COMSEC – Who’s Listening? How Do You Know?

Welcome back. Last month we considered OPSEC (https://mtnmanblog.blogspot.com/2022/07/opsec-hows-your-operational-security.html) and it just makes sense to carry on with a security topic…namely, COMSEC. Which is the short form for Communications Security. Now if you go online and conduct a search for COMSEC you will get many returns. Some for Australia – COMMSEC, which deals with secure online trading. Wikipedia gives a basic high-level overview. And Omitron Security Solutions Group (https://ncms-isp.org/documents/COMSEC_Material.pdf) shares an excellent background document that is worth reviewing if you are getting serious about protecting your communications from others.

You might be saying, “Thanks for the teaser, Mountainman, but hurry up man and get to the point!” What is COMSEC and why the heck should I care?

Good things to those who wait…COMSEC is more than just having hardware – radios, phones, and computers, that can transmit encrypted messages. In fact, for like-minded folks who may never be able to afford such high-tech equipment that has built-in encryption, COMSEC is even more important. COMSEC is a form of discipline to ensure the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time, without unauthorized persons intercepting or interfering with message delivery.

Like, OPSEC, a large part of COMSEC is situational awareness and being aware of what is going on around you. However, it is larger than just the immediate area within your line of sight. Two-way radios, depending on type, frequency, power and antenna, can transmit farther than you can see – even with telescopic optics. Oh…and anybody with a receiver of a similar type, within range can listen to every word you transmit. The airwaves have ears!

A few rules to increase your COMSEC and reduce your likelihood of being targeted by the foe.

RULE #1: Keep Messages BRIEF!

RULE #2: Change OFTEN! [Change Frequency, Change Location, Change Time]

RULE #3: Develop a local lingo and pet phrases.

RULE #4: Develop a backup communications system before you need it!

Brief messages reduce your chance of being noticed on a frequency and make it more difficult for directional finding (DF) equipment to locate you. If you have a long message break it into multiple short messages. This works until you become a problem for someone, and they become interested in you and target you to be located, then the DFing teams will use equipment that will triangulate your position within seconds of your radio breaking squelch. Stay in the background and do not get noticed.

If you are part of an organization that listens to the radio on a regular basis to keep informed of what is happening in the world around you, ensure that if you need to communicate with others in your group, you never, ever transmit from the same location as you are listening from. Following that same train of thought, your transmitting locations should change location often. Same, same for frequencies – change weekly, daily, hourly as is required for your mission. The more you use your comms, the more often you should change the frequency. Check-in times should also be staggered. The name of the game is to stay disciplined and avoid creating patterns. Patterns get noticed!

Make up a language or parts of a language that have meaning to your organization but are boring and innocuous to the rest of the folks listening in on the airwaves. Avoid using “10” codes, although you can get away with saying 10-4 once in a while. However, if a message MUST GET THROUGH developing a method of encryption is an option. One such method from the Cold War era is the One Time Pad (OTP). Cryptography is not my specialty, so I would recommend checking this video from S2 Underground (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzwpmbIWUNc) who knows a lot more about this topic.

Finally, developing a backup system of communications is just good business continuity planning. Assume your favourite comms method will fail. Furthermore, assume it will fail when you need it the most. That is why you see in war movies, the commander shooting his radio before the mission starts. Then he knows why his radio failed him and his unit. Research the use of dead drops or flags (semaphore or other flag signalling techniques) or obsolete methods like Morse Code – which works with sound, light, drawn images, or spacing of objects on the ground/windowsill.

Without comms, operations and business in this modern age become almost impossible. Knowing this NOW means you can plan for it in the future.

Until next time…Keep your ears on Good Buddy!

Mountainman.