NOW READ THIS
("Security Advisory")
Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0419 Researchers Crack GSM Phone Security:
Two enterprising researchers claim to have figured out a way to eavesdrop on calls made
using GSM mobile phones, cracking open its much-vaunted encryption. The researchers
presented their technique at the Black Hat security conference in Washington. They said
GSM calls can now be recorded over long distances and cracked open in half an hour using
only $1,000 worth of field-programmable gate array-aided computer equipment and a
frequency scanner. Although GSM's 64-bit A5 stream cipher has been theoretically
vulnerable for some time, this is the first time anyone has demonstrated a way of doing
it without investing in expensive, specialized equipment and without it taking years.
And if you are willing to spend $100,000 on hardware, the crack can be done in only 30
seconds using massively parallel processing technology. Their company, Pico Computing Inc.,
is now developing the fast version to sell to agencies such as law enforcement, but plans to
give away the slower version for free.
(TechWorld.com 21FEB08)