Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Digital cell phone encryption broken, snooping possible
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 03:34:45 -0500
It was my understanding that it was understood that this code could be "easily" broken and that was intentional. The fact that a PC can do it is the interesting part. djf
Date: Mon, 06 Dec 1999 16:01:00 -0500 To: politech () vorlon mit edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> X-URL: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ ******* http://wired.lycos.com/news/politics/0,1283,32900,00.html Cell Phone Crypto Penetrated by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com) 10:55 a.m. 6.Dec.1999 PST Israeli researchers have discovered design flaws that allow the descrambling of supposedly private conversations carried by hundreds of millions of wireless phones. Alex Biryukov and Adi Shamir describe in a paper to be published this week how a PC with 128 MB RAM and large hard drives can penetrate the security of a phone call or data transmission in less than one second. The flawed algorithm appears in digital GSM phones made by companies such as Motorola, Ericsson, and Siemens, and used by well over 100 million customers in Europe and the United States. Recent estimates say there are over 230 million users worldwide who account for 65 percent of the digital wireless market. [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- IP: Digital cell phone encryption broken, snooping possible Dave Farber (Dec 07)