Imagine the situation; you’re using your radio to pass confidential, sensitive, operationally critical information to your colleagues. The message is received, loud and clear, and all is well – or so you think. Because, without your knowledge, somebody nearby is listening to your every word. With that, your sensitive information is leaked, and the operational details of your work are now in the hands of an unknown third party.
Radios are an inherently secure technology form, as the entire radio system is ‘closed’ and controlled by the system owner. However, whilst the operational efficiency gains of wireless two-way radio are clear to see, all too often, unencrypted devices are used for critical operations. This is because either the devices use PMR446, shared licence-free frequencies, or the licenced radios have not been configured to use encryption. If event teams and security staff don’t use encrypted radio communication tools there’s a risk that sensitive information can be intercepted by unauthorised users – compromising operations, safety and even confidentiality.
Are two-way radios encrypted?
The short answer is no – not all radios are encrypted. In fact, most are unencrypted, which is why it’s important that you talk to a communications specialist like Roadphone NRB to ensure your radio solution is really right for you.
PMR446, or licence-free radios, are the most insecure type of radio because they operate on shared frequencies, which can be used by anyone. These radios are commonly sold by high street or online retailers for the consumer market. This means that they aren’t an encrypted two-way radio solution and aren’t the best choice for event and security teams, but they do make a great present for your children at Christmas! Because the handsets are so easily available, and the frequencies are shared and open to all, these devices shouldn’t be used to pass confidential information.
Analogue, licensed radios are slightly more secure in that the frequencies they operate on are licensed to the business or user who owns the devices. This prevents another party from legally transmitting on these frequencies – although from a technical perspective, there is still nothing to prevent unauthorised users from accessing your channels. Analogue transmissions can be easily scanned for and intercepted, which means that they aren’t the most secure radio communication systems to use.
Digital radios are the next evolution, as in order to listen to a transmission, an unauthorised third party would also need to obtain the correct digital group contact and colour code. Modern scanning equipment, however, is capable of overcoming these protection barriers.
Because of this, digital radios, with AES encryption, are the best and most secure two-way radio option to ensure your communications remain truly private .
How do encrypted radios work?
In its most basic form, an encrypted two-way radio works by using the end-to-end security model, protecting the transmitted packets with a secure key, which is only known by the transmitting and receiving radios. Basic privacy is the first level of protection, which is designed to prevent casual eavesdropping but doesn’t provide strong enough protection against a determined interceptor. Basic privacy works by using a single 16-bit key from 255 predefined available keys.
The next level of protection is enhanced privacy, keeping your voice and data calls highly confidential, and providing defence against a determined attack. For a Motorola radio system, this uses the ARC4 cryptographic digital algorithm to encode voice and data using a 40-bit key. Your voice and data packets are encoded, whilst signalling and control messages are not. The trade-off for more privacy is a slight degradation in voice quality and increased system access times, but for most radio users, this is not noticeable.
The ultimate type of two-way radio encryption is AES 256-bit encryption. By using this Advanced Encryption Standard, this gives a much higher level of protection compared to enhanced privacy. AES is a defined standard for protecting electronic data and is used widely across electronic data protection. Moreover, AES-256 has been adopted by the DMR Association as a method that can be used for voice and data encryption, and packets are protected by a 256-bit encryption key, which is shared by the transmitting and receiving parties.
AES 256-bit encryption is usually a premium licensable featureand is designed for the most secure two-way radio applications, such as military, emergency services and government applications.
Can a two-way radio be traced?
Some radios use GPS tracking in order to relay a radio user’s position back to a control room. GPS works by using satellites to identify the precise location of a handset, but the radio then sends its own location back to the control room using data packets transmitted on the radio system itself.
This makes GPS positioning on a wireless two-way radio very secure, as it means that the radio’s position is not transmitted back via a 3rd party network that is out of your control. Instead, the radio uses satellites to establish its own position and then transmits its coordinates back using your radio network. The control room, which would typically use a PC-based dispatcher such as TRBONet, then uses these coordinates to present onto a map or site plan.
This means that even when GPS is used, your radio’s position is kept secure within your radio network.
Prevent unwanted eavesdropping
Technical solutions to prevent people from interrogating your radio transmissions are important, but sometimes the simplest of vulnerabilities get overlooked. When an operator uses their radio without an earpiece, this means that the radio’s speaker is transmitting radio messages not only to the user, but also to all of those in their immediate vicinity.
Picture the scene – a busy music festival, where sensitive information is being transmitted about a security threat. A security guard working on a gate has their radio on full volume, and the music fans walking nearby can hear the message from the guard’s radio. This could lead to unnecessary panic amongst the public, which might cause crowd movement issues or false information to quickly spread.
Perhaps it’s a school where sensitive personal information is being passed about a student. A teacher has their radio on their desk, and all of the students in their class can hear the information.
In both of these cases, the radio network has been securely encrypted, but it’s the actions of the end user that lead to the data breach.
The solution here is simple, providing proper radio protocol training and equipping the users with comfortable earpieces, so that only they can hear the information being passed to them. Thankfully, Roadphone NRB can help you with both of these important considerations, allowing you to create a truly secure radio network.
Benefits of secure two-way radio communications
When designing your two-way radio network, you should always consider the security of the information being transmitted. Perhaps it’s security-sensitive operational details, or private information about vulnerable people – all information that only needs to be heard by those within your control, and not by an unauthorised individual.
Communicating through a secure two-way radio system can help you to:
- Stop unauthorised users from accessing your information – prevent third parties from listening to your radio transmissions, which might contain confidential or sensitive information
- Prevent unwanted interruptions or interference – an unauthorised user transmitting on your radio channel might prevent you from passing time-sensitive information, and render your radio system inoperable
- Create confidence in your radio users – your radio users will be confident to pass sensitive information over the airwaves, safe in the knowledge that it is not being heard by other users
- Data Integrity – once your radio system is secure, the communication that it shares maintains its integrity. End-to-end encryption prevents a message from being intercepted whilst in transit, helping you to adhere to GDPR and UK data protection regulations.
Choose our encrypted radio communication equipment for your organisation
If you’re running an event or working in an environment where you need to improve communication in the safest and most efficient way, then our range of secure, encrypted two-way radio solutions is for you. At Roadphone NRB, we stock a wide variety of two-way radios which are capable of supporting secure encryption and can work with you to design a communications ecosystem – with handsets, earpieces, and repeater solutions – making a radio system truly suitable for your needs.
Our team is on hand to design a communication solution that keeps your operations running smoothly, whilst protecting everyone from potential threats.