Secure Terminal Equipment (STE) is the U.S. government's current (), encrypted telephone communications system for wired or "landline" communications. STE is designed to use

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work ...

telephone lines which offer higher speeds of up to 128 kbit/s and are all digital. The greater bandwidth allows higher quality voice and can also be utilized for data and fax transmission through a built-in

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' ('' data terminal equipment'') suc ...

port. STE is intended to replace the older

STU-III STU-III (Secure Telephone Unit - third generation) is a family of secure telephones introduced in 1987 by the NSA for use by the United States government, its contractors, and its allies. STU-III desk units look much like typical office telephone ...

office system and the

KY-68 TSEC/KY-68 DSVT, commonly known as Digital Subscriber Voice Terminal, is a US military ruggedized, full- or half-duplex tactical telephone system with a built-in encryption/ decryption module for secure Secure may refer to: * Security, being ...

tactical system. STE sets are backwards compatible with STU-III phones, but not with KY-68 sets. STE sets look like ordinary high-end office desk telephones and can place unsecured calls to anywhere on the

public switched telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The PSTN is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telep ...

(PSTN), as well as secured calls on it via the phone's backwards compatible STU-III mode. There is a

PC Card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and devel ...

slot in the STE that allows a Fortezza Plus (

KOV-14 The KOV-14 Fortezza Plus is a US National Security Agency-approved PC card which provides encryption functions and key storage to the Secure Terminal Equipment and other devices. It is a tamper-resistant module based on the Mykotronx Krypton chi ...

) Crypto Card or

KSV-21 The KSV-21 Enhanced Crypto Card is a US National Security Agency-approved PC card that provides Type 1 encryption functions and key storage to the STE secure telephones and other devices. The KSV-21 was originally built by SafeNet but has sinc ...

Enhanced Crypto Card to be inserted. When an

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...

configured Crypto Card is present, secure calls can be placed to other STE phones. STE phones are "releasable" (unlike STU-III sets). All cryptographic algorithms are in the crypto card. Newer STE sets can communicate with systems that use the Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol (SCIP) (formerly Future Narrowband Digital Terminal (FNBDT)). There are upgrade kits available for older units.

Models

* Office: The Office STE is the most widely used STE and provides voice and data access to ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) telecommunications systems. * Tactical: The Tactical STE is similar to the Office STE but can also access the TRI-TAC (TRI Service TACtical) network and has a serial EIA-530A/EIA-232 BDI (

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

Digital Interface) port. * Data: The Data STE provides remote access for voice, fax, data and video-conferencing. This model has two serial EIA-530A/EIA-232 BDI ports and allows for data transfers to multiple destinations. * C2: The C2 STE is similar to the Tactical STE but C2 has modified software for use with its Tactical Terminal Locking Handset mechanism. * STE-R: Similar to the Data STE, the STE-R''emote'' provides dial-in access to the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN). * VoIP: The STE now has

Voice over Internet Protocol Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

(VoIP) capability, available as an upgrade to the current models, or built into some new models. As of 2007, a typical STE terminal cost about $3,100, not including the crypto card.

References

External links

The NAVY INFOSEC WebSite on STU-III and STE
{{Cryptography navbox , machines Encryption devices Secure communication