The world has been secretive for over 25 years about a technology used for critical data and voice radio communication around the globe. No one could closely examine its security properties to detect vulnerabilities. A small group of researchers in the Netherlands have compiled a research study on the subject. Now, due to their efforts, it is publicly airing. It was discovered that its viscera, including a deliberate backdoor, had serious flaws, which they worked around.
Vendors who sell radios have known the encryption algorithm baked into them for years by vendors who sell the technology. Customers have not necessarily known this backdoor. A pipeline, a railway, an electric grid, a mass transit system, or a freight train could send encrypted data and commands via this technology. If someone has access to these communications, they could snoop on them and find out how they work. The command could then be relayed to the radios, triggering a blackout, stopping gas pipeline flows, or rerouting trains. This would eliminate the problem at hand.
An additional vulnerability was found in a different part of the same radio technology that is used in more specialized systems used only by police forces, prisons, military personnel, intelligence agencies, and emergency services that were sold exclusively to police forces, prison personnel, military personnel, and emergency services.
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