[Lorionasodi]

Computer hackers this week said they had cracked and published the secret code that protects 80 per cent of the world’s mobile phones. The move will leave more than 3bn people vulnerable to having their calls intercepted, and could force mobile phone operators into a costly upgrade of their networks.
Karsten Nohl, a German encryption expert, said he had organised the hack to demonstrate the weaknesses of the security measures protecting the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and to push mobile operators to improve their systems.
“This shows that existing GSM security is inadequate,” Mr Nohl told an audience of about 600 people at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, a four-day conference of computer hackers. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/54ca8e66-f...44feab49a.html
Definitely interesting. It doesn't affect 3G GSM, but still...

[Twelearly]

Sad that it takes someone to publish this sort of thing before lazy carriers do anything about it... Like say implementing stronger encryption standards which have been around almost as long as the 20 year old 64-bit standards in question. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, sit around for a decade, wait for the bridge to start crumbling and get pushed across by someone else just as it's falling down.

Or, this smells like a stupendous business opportunity. Telephone call encryption $5 per month**.

** We still hand everything over to the government at the bat of an eyelash.

[Drugmachine]

It took this long to crack cellphone encryption keys? I'm actually surprised.

[lopushok]

Sad that it takes someone to publish this sort of thing before lazy carriers do anything about it... Like say implementing stronger encryption standards which have been around almost as long as the 20 year old 64-bit standards in question. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, sit around for a decade, wait for the bridge to start crumbling and get pushed across by someone else just as it's falling down.

Or, this smells like a stupendous business opportunity. Telephone call encryption $5 per month**.

** We still hand everything over to the government at the bat of an eyelash.

Even more surprised it has taken hackers this long to break it!

[Immerymopay]

The encryption algorithm was designed to be weak; it was obsolete at the time of introduction and cracked years ago.

[Munccoughe]

So CDMA > GSM?

[Immerymopay]

So CDMA > GSM?

In terms of security for 2G, yes. I'm not sure, but I believe the security is identical for 3G.

[hrotedk]

Good thing my mobile network is all 3G towers, 98% population coverage.