Iran encryption attacks using USA chips.

SIXTEEN CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY EXPORTING MILITARY COMPONENTS TO IRAN 
U.S. Department of Justice ^ | September 17, 2008 | Staff 

Posted on Fri Sep 19 2008 01:23:15 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) by gandalftb

MIAMI - A federal grand jury has charged eight individuals and corporations with participation in conspiracies to export U.S.-manufactured commodities to to Iran.

The Indictment alleges the defendants caused the export of 120 field-programmable gate arrays, more than 5000 integrated circuits of varying types, approximately 345 Global Positioning Systems (“GPS”), 12,000 Microchip brand micro-controllers, and a Field Communicator. All have military applications as components in IEDs........

Other than the 12,000 microchips used for IED's there is hidden in this indictment is another very sinister effort by the Iranians.

We are very good at listening in on terrorists and have cracked their communication encryptian devices.

The Iranians would like to do the same to us so that they could listen in on our encrypted military communications.

The 120 field-programmable gate arrays are exactly the number needed to build a COPACOBANA machine that can be used in a "brute force attack", a method of defeating a cryptographic scheme.

A COPACOBANA machine was built at the University of Kiel, Germany, using 120 FPGA's.

Kiel, Germany is the home of one of the defendents Djamshid Nezhad of Nezhad Enterprise Company, phone number: 49-431-6436698, fax: 49-431-5907027, website: www.nezhad.de 

by gandalftb

SOURCE:

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A what? COPACOBANA machine....G

Cryptanalysis of ciphers usually involves massive computations. The security parameters of cryptographic algorithms are commonly chosen so that attacks are infeasible with available computing resources. This contribution presents a variety of cryptanalytical applications utilizing the COPACOBANA (Cost-Optimized Parallel Code Breaker) machine which is a high-performance, low-cost cluster consisting of 120 Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). COPACOBANA appears to be the only such reconfigurable parallel FPGA machine optimized for code breaking tasks reported in the open literature. Depending on the actual algorithm, the parallel hardware architecture can outperform conventional computers by several orders of magnitude. In this work, we will focus on novel implementations of cryptanalytical algorithms, utilizing the impressive computational power of COPACOBANA. We describe various exhaustive key search attacks on symmetric ciphers and demonstrate an attack on a security mechanism employed in the electronic passport. Furthermore, we describe time-memory tradeoff techniques which can, e.g., be used for attacking the popular A5/1 algorithm used in GSM voice encryption. In addition, we introduce efficient implementations of more complex cryptanalysis on asymmetric cryptosystems, e.g., Elliptic Curve Cryptosystems (ECC) and number co-factorization for RSA.

SOURCE

Who in Iran would be using this stuff? G

Treasury Designates Iranian Military Firms

Washington - The U.S Department of the Treasury today designated six Iranian military firms that are owned or controlled by entities previously designated for their roles in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, including Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) and Defense Industries Organization (DIO).

"Iran attempts to shield its procurement activities behind a maze of entities, essentially hoodwinking those still doing business with Iran into facilitating illicit transactions for the transport of dual use, missile-related items," said Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism & Financial Intelligence.

Iran Electronics Industries , Shiraz Electronics Industries , Iran Communications Industries , Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company , Farasakht Industries, and Armament Industries Group were designated today pursuant to Executive Order 13382, an authority aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, and at isolating them from the U.S. financial and commercial systems.  Designations under E.O. 13382 are implemented by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and they prohibit all transactions between the designees and any U.S. person, and freeze any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction.

Treasury prepared these designations in close coordination with the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security as well as the Justice Department.  The designations complement Commerce's and Justice's criminal investigation of Iranian procurement front companies.

Iran Electronics Industries , as well as two subsidiary organizations, Shiraz Electronics Industries  and Iran Communications Industries , are being designated because they are owned or controlled by Iran's MODAFL.  MODAFL, which was designated under Executive Order 13382 on October 25, 2007, controls other previously designated entities DIO, and Aerospace Industries Organization, which is the overall manager and coordinator of Iran's missile program.

Iran Electronics Industries (IEI) offers a diversified range of military products including electro-optics and lasers, communication equipment, telecommunication security equipment, electronic warfare equipment, new and refurbished radar tubes, and missile launchers.  IEI manufactures military tactical communication systems and also electronic field telephones and switchboards.  IEI also manufactures night vision systems and laser range finders in addition to binoculars and periscopes.

Shiraz Electronics Industries is engage in the production of various electronics equipment for the Iranian military, including radars, microwave electron vacuum tubes, naval electronics, avionics and control systems, training simulators, missile guidance technology, and electronic test equipment.

Iran Communications Industries (ICI) is Iran's leading manufacturer of military and civilian communication equipment and systems.  ICI offers more than seventy-five products, including tactical communications and encryption systems that meet a wide range of the Iranian military's requirements.

Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) is being designated because it is owned or controlled by MODAFL, and also because it has provided support to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  The IRGC, which was designated under Executive Order 13382 on October 25, 2007, is considered to be the military vanguard of Iran and has been outspoken about its willingness to proliferate ballistic missiles capable of carrying WMD.

HESA utilizes its own facilities for the inspection, maintenance, repair overhaul research, development, and manufacture of military and civilian aircraft and related military logistic systems.  HESA conducts research on, development of, production of, and flight operations for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Iran.  The IRGC utilizes the "Ababil" UAV, manufactured by HESA.  HESA produces different variants of the Ababil UAV, which can be used for surveillance and attack.  Farasakht Industries is a subsidiary of HESA that specializes in the manufacturing of various aerospace tools and equipment.

Armament Industries Group is also being designated because it is owned or controlled by and acts on behalf of Iran's DIO.  Armament Industries Group is directly subordinate to DIO and is known to manufacture arms such as gun howitzers, multiple rocket launchers, sniper rifles and a variety of machine guns.  DIO was designated under Executive Order 13382 on March 30, 2007, for having engaged in activities that materially contribute to the development of Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Gerald