http://www.freep.com/news/religion/pope-bar112e_20050412.htm [Just goes to show you, EVERYONE has to worry about high-tech security headaches, even the Vatican has IT, electronic, and physical security threats to be concerned about. - WK] BY AIDAN LEWIS and JIM KRANE ASSOCIATED PRESS April 12, 2005 VATICAN CITY -- Spying has gotten a lot more sophisticated since John Paul II was elected in 1978, but the Vatican seems confident it can protect the tradition of secrecy that will surround next week's meeting of cardinals to name a new pope. Computer hackers, electronic bugs and supersensitive microphones are among the possibilities. Vatican security members wouldn't discuss the details of any anti-bugging measures to be used during the conclave. But Giuseppe Mazzullo, a private detective and retired Rome police officer whose former unit worked with the Vatican in the past, has said the Holy See is expected to reinforce its own experts with Italian police and private security contractors. "The security is very strict," Mazzullo said. "For people to steal information, it's very, very difficult if not impossible." Thousands of reporters will be watching as the 115 cardinals gather Monday. Hackers and government informants may also be monitoring the conclave. Revelations of the proceedings could prove embarrassing to the Vatican. For instance, sensitive discussions on a papal candidate's stand on relations with Muslims or Jews, recognizing China rather than Taiwan, or views on contraception would be sought-after by governments and the news media. In 1996, John Paul set rules to protect cardinals from "threats to their independence of judgment." Cell phones, electronic organizers, radios, newspapers, televisions and recorders were banned from conclaves. Cell phones and personal data organizers can be hacked and used to broadcast the proceedings to a listener, security experts say. "An eavesdropper can reach into those devices and turn on the microphone and turn it into an eavesdropping device," said James Atkinson, who heads a Gloucester, Mass., company that specializes in bug detection. Also, rooftop snoops with sensitive laser microphones can pick up conversations from a quarter-mile away by recording vibrations on window glass or other hard surfaces. The Sistine Chapel, where the conclave will be held, has windows set near the roof. Laser microphones can be thwarted with heavy drapes and by masking conversations with ambient noise. Tougher to root out are tiny transmitters or recorders as small as a coin. To handle those, teams acting on the pope's 1996 orders would need to mount complex sweeps of sensitive meeting areas, taking out carpets, poking through chair cushions, opening heating ducts and testing electrical wiring, light bulbs and water pipes, Atkinson said. The late pope deemed the threat to the conclave serious enough to decree that those who break their oaths of secrecy can be cast out of the church. In a sign of nervousness about maintaining secrecy, the College of Cardinals decided Saturday to halt interviews with the news media. "They've assured us there are ways to block all communications and conversations," Chicago Cardinal Francis George said last week. But even with precautions, halting a spy inside the Vatican -- perhaps an unwitting one -- is probably the toughest threat to block, experts said. "Are they going to search all the cardinals to see whether someone bugged their spectacles or crucifixes?" asked Giles Ebbut, a surveillance expert for the London consultancy Jane's. "The imagination can run riot." _________________________________________ Network Security - http://www.auditmypc.com Free vulnerability test - How secure is your computer?
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