GSM encryption broken - cheap
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/22/0262 ... »
Granted GSM encryption has been broken before but it took time and money. If this is correct it'll be a problem.
Granted GSM encryption has been broken before but it took time and money. If this is correct it'll be a problem.
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Lacey said:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/22/0262 ... »
Granted GSM encryption has been broken before but it took time and money. If this is correct it'll be a problem.
The article does specify that the encryption can be broken in about 30 minutes. I don't see any indication or claims that their technique allows them to pinpoint specific conversations. Sure, you can always decrypt the whole stew of traffic, then go hunting through decrypt by decrypt to find something juicy, but it doesn't seem like someone will be able to easily target you for spying.
It has me intrigued at least. I hope to see more technical details on the process at some point.
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Webb said:...Lacey said:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/22/0262 ... »
Granted GSM encryption has been broken before but it took time and money. If this is correct it'll be a problem.
The article does specify that the encryption can be broken in about 30 minutes. I don't see any indication or claims that their technique allows them to pinpoint specific conversations. Sure, you can always decrypt the whole stew of traffic, then go hunting through decrypt by decrypt to find something juicy, but it doesn't seem like someone will be able to easily target you for spying.
It has me intrigued at least. I hope to see more technical details on the process at some point.
(continues)
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AvgJoe said:
Wha cares. I used to listen in on cell phones with a Radio Shack police scanner when it was all analog. I was entertained for a whole 5 minutes...
Much ado about nothing.
I'm not really worried about it. I tend to assume that phones are compromised to begin with unless I'm using additional encryption (NOT the telco's). But then once upon a time I used work in that most esteemed of oxymorons that is military intelligence, so... not exactly a common mindset.
My interest in the technical details really amounts to pure curiousity.
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It's been a while since I read about GSM and its encryption.... but doesn't the encryption change on every call? or is it only after power cycling the phone? I don't remember...
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Anxiovert said:
It's been a while since I read about GSM and its encryption.... but doesn't the encryption change on every call? or is it only after power cycling the phone? I don't remember...
Not sure of the specifics myself. They could always have the algorithm incorporate variables like the customer's wireless number, IMEI and time of day so that the algorithm is itself not a constant.
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