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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. ...
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 introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...
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 telephon ...
office system and the KY-68 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) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists o ...
(PSTN), as well as secured calls on it via the phone's backwards compatible STU-III mode. There is a
PC Card PC Card is a technical standard specifying an expansion card interface for laptops and personal digital assistants, PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture, ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to ...
slot in the STE that allows a Fortezza Plus ( KOV-14) Crypto Card or KSV-21 Enhanced Crypto Card to be inserted. When an NSA-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 The Secure Communications Interoperability Protocol (SCIP) is a US standard for secure voice and data communication, focircuit-switchedone-to-one connections, not packet-switched networks. SCIP derived from the US Government Future Narrowband Di ...
(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 that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
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 known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables Voice call, voice calls to be tran ...
(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