MagisterLudi October 24, 2016 at 12:19

Hacker dossier: Boris Florikik aka Tron, creator of the first Cryptophone

Boris Florikik (June 8, 1972 - October 17, 1998), known under the pseudonym Tron, was a German hacker and phreaker, whose death, which occurred in obscure circumstances, led to the appearance in the German press of a large number of hypotheses from the category of "conspiracy theories." He was also known for his graduation project, which was one of the first known implementations of the phone with built-in voice encryption, called "Cryptophone".

Florikik was involved in hacking a variety of computer security systems: he is known, in particular, for hacking the protection of German telephone cards and creating their workable copies. Subsequently, he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the theft of a pay phone that he committed in 1995 (committed by him for reverse engineering purposes), however, then the sentence was quashed and commuted to a probationary period.

The name Florikik was again actively mentioned in the press from December 2005 to January 2006, when his parents and Andy Müller-Maguhn, a well-known member of the hacker society Chaos Computer Club(CCC) filed a lawsuit in Germany against the Wikimedia Foundation in connection with the fact that the real name of the hacker was written in the Wikipedia section in German. The lawsuit included demands to remove the name Florikik from a German-language Wikipedia article.

early years

Florikik grew up in Gropiusstadt, in the southern suburbs of Berlin. At school he was interested in technical subjects. After ten years, he left school and received a professional education at the Technical University of Berlin with a degree in telecommunications electronics with a qualification in information technology. After receiving a certificate, he began classes in cybernetics at the Technical University of Applied Sciences of Berlin.

During training, Florikik practiced at a company developing security systems. Winter 1997/1998 he successfully completed his studies and defended his thesis on "Cryptophone" - an ISDN phone with built-in voice encryption. Since the parts of his graduate work that his fellow student was supposed to do were absent, he could not then finish work on the “Cryptophone”. However, the University Evaluation Commission recognized his work as outstanding. After graduation, Florikik got a job, but unsuccessfully. In his free time, he, among other things, continued to work on the “Cryptophone”.

Interests

Florikik was very keen on electronics and security systems of any kind. He participated in the hacking of German telephone cards and pay television. During the search, he exchanged his ideas and suggestions with other hackers and experts. For example, in the e-mail newsletter “tv-crypt”, which was a private group of hackers, Florikik wrote about himself and his interests in the field of microprocessors, programming languages, electronics, wireless data transmission, and especially in the field of hacking security systems considered reliable. He claimed that he had created working clones of payment cards for British pay-TV, and that he would continue to work on hacking scrambling systems Nagravision / Syster, which was then used by the German pay-TV provider PREMIERE.

At that time, the theoretical work of American experts on the topic of illegal actions was published, the object of which could be SIM cards of the GSM standard. Together with hackers from Chaos Computer Club, Florekik successfully created a working clone of the SIM card, thereby proving the possibility of such an attack in practice. He also excelled in releasing clones of German SIM cards. But, if Florikik himself just wanted to demonstrate the insecurity of the system, criminal elements began to abuse this opportunity, which attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies and the German national telephone operator Deutsche Telekom.

After Deutsche Telekom made changes to the system, Florikik tried to tear the telephone out of the booth (using a sledgehammer). The police caught him and his friend on March 3, 1995. In his defense, he said that he needed this equipment to adapt his calling card simulators to the latest changes.

Cryptophone

For his prototype ISDN phone with integrated voice encryption, Florikik chose the name “Cryptophone”. It was created in the winter of 1997/1998. in the framework of the defense of the thesis, entitled "Application of information encryption in the data channel in the ISDN standard network." The phone encrypted phone calls using the symmetric IDEA encryption algorithm to eliminate the danger from unreliable remote stations.

Florikik tried to make the Cryptophone cheap and easy to assemble by amateurs. The device was based on an 8051-compatible microprocessor that controls the entire system and peripherals (for example, an ISDN controller, keyboard and monitor). Florikik used cheap digital signal processors for encryption.DSP of the American company Texas Instruments , which he got out of old computer modems and which could be inexpensively bought.

DSP-Board

Since this type of DSP was not strong enough for the chosen type of encryption, Florikik used them in the Cryptophone in two pieces: one worked for transmission, the other for reception. He planned to expand the functions of the phone so that he could also encrypt data transfer. He developed both software and a way to use encryption in DSP. He found a new way to use the IDEA algorithm, significantly reducing the process time.

Diplomarbeit

yet

The diploma itself lies here on the CCC server .

Death

On October 17, 1998, Florikik disappeared, and a few days later he was found in a local park hanging on a tree with a lap belt around his neck. The official version of death is suicide. His friends at Chaos Computer Club and his family held the murder version. The disputes suggested that his activities in the field of security systems for pay-TV and voice encryption could intersect with the interests of organized crime or intelligence services, which could lead to murder.

The German journalist Burkhard Schröder in 1999 published a book about his death, Throne - The Death of a Hacker, in which he examines the facts of the case known at that time. Since in the end the author is inclined to the version of suicide, the book was sharply criticized by members of the Chaos Computer Club and the parents of Florikik.

At a meeting at the Chaos Computer Club, while discussing the death of 26-year-old Boris F., his friend Mueller-Maguhn said: “Tron could underestimate the financial value of the information he found. He was always straightforward, honest ... and naive. " And then one of the participants summarized: “Well, this will be a lesson for all of us: if you stumble upon something very valuable - hurry up to make this information widely publicized. Do not risk your head. "