IP: More on cell phone snooping and GSM crack

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
>
> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 09:57:05 -0500
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> From: David Banisar <banisar () 2rad net>
> Subject: cell phone intereception
>
> Declan,
>
> http://wired.lycos.com/news/politics/0,1283,32900,00.html
>
> Moran from the GSM association claims that there is no hardware
> available to intercept GSM calls. I just wanted to point out that
> there are many commercial devices sold that are designed to intercept
> cell phone communications, and i belive that many of them have been
> redesigned to intercept digital communications (remember
> Triggerfish?). These are typically only supposed to be sold to law
> enforcement (at least under US law) but I imagine that any mega corp
> or rich individual with enough $$ can get one also.
>
> Dave
>
> **********
>
> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 20:45:31 +0100 (CET)
> From: Lucky Green <shamrock () cypherpunks to>
> To: declan () well com
>
> -----
> James Moran, the fraud and security director of the GSM Association in
> Dublin, says that "nowhere in the world has it been demonstrated --an
> ability to intercept a call on the GSM network. That's a fact.... To our
> knowledge there's no hardware capable of intercepting."
> -----
>
> At home, I have a screen shot of a commercial GSM interception station
> operating in Moscow. I even have the manual. Unfortunately, it is in
> Russian. These devices are sold for around USD 30k. I know I could build
> one for well under USD 10k.
>
> *********