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Throughout the Department of Energy (DOE) complex, sites protect themselves with intrusion detection systems. Some of these systems have sensors in remote areas. These sensors frequently alarm -- not because they have detected a terrorist skulking around the area, but because they have detected a horse, or a dog, or a bush moving in the breeze. Even though the local security force is 99% sure there is no real threat, they must assess each of these nuisance or false alarms. Generally, the procedure consists of dispatching an inspector to drive to the area and make an assessment. This is expensive in terms of manpower and the assessment is not timely. Often, by the time the inspector arrives, the cause of the alarm has vanished. A television camera placed to view the area protected by the sensor could be used to help in this assessment, but this requires the installation of high-quality cable, optical fiber, or a microwave link. Further, to be of use at the present time, the site must have had the foresight to have installed these facilities in the past and have them ready for use now. What is needed is a device to place between the television camera and a modem connecting to a low-bandwidth channel such as radio or a telephone line. This paper discusses the development of such a device: an Image Transmission System, or ITS.

To protect a security instrument such as a television camera from subversion by signal substitution, the data from the instrument are digitized and submitted to an authenticator. The digital data may then be transmitted in the clear over a non-secure medium. Appended to the data is a 10-bit authentication value based on the values of the data and a random authentication number. At the receiving end, the data are submitted to an identical authenticator. If it produces the same authentication value, the data are authentic. Such a scheme can only work if the instrument, the authenticator, and the link between them can be protected from tampering. This paper describes a tamper resistant container designed to protect a data authenticator and television camera against an adversary having sophisticated resources and complete design information. The container's design includes active elements to detect and report intrusion attempts in real time. It also includes passive elements to indicate upon later inspection that the container had been violated. 1 ref., 2 figs.