Re: Israeli boffins crack GSM code

[Adam Shostack <adam () homeport org>]

On Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 04:22:19PM +0200, Rainer Gerhards wrote:
| It was in the media over here in Germany some days ago. It seems to be a
| fundamental flaw in the GSM design. AFIK, the attacker pretends to be a GSM
| base station and can receive the call via a cell handover. Using this
| technology, it would also possible to call "in the name of" (with the caller id
| of) any victim that comes close enough to the fake base station. It was said
| that the GSM providers do not really care because a) it would be to hard to set
| up the equipment and b) it would probably to expensive for the operators to fix
| this ;)


don't forget c) it's revenue, and if the thieves use it to pass their
bills for calling the most expensive countries on earth onto random
passers-by, its not the telco's problem, is it?  They're using
"Industry standard" security.

This is like the (AT&T?) voice mail frauds that were costing people
thousands of dollars for choosing poor passwords for their voice
mail.  Until it hits a certain level, its just revenue enhancement
through poor security.

Adam


-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
                                                       -Hume


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