Originally posted on 05Jan10 to IBM Developerworks where it got 6,806 Views
Did you know that the vast majority of calls carried out on the 3.5 billion GSM connections in the world today are protected by a 21-year old 64-bit encryption algorithm? You should now, given that the A5/1 privacy algorithm, devised in 1988, has been deciphered by German computer engineer Karsten Nohl and published as a torrent for fellow code cracking enthusiasts and less benevolent forces to exploit.
Here is the URL for this bookmark: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/29/gsm-call-encryption-code-cracked-published-for-the-whole-world/
Yikes! This harks back to the old days of eves droppers on Analogue phone signals and all those illegally taped conversations (I recall some conversations between the late Princess Diana of Wales and her bodyguard for example). Ok, we’re probably not quite there yet, but by the sounds of this article, we aren’t far from it now…
