

Privacy of 3.5 Billion Cellphone Users Compromised – GSM Code is Broken - kirubakaran
http://www.programmerfish.com/privacy-of-3-5-billion-cellphone-users-compromised-gsm-code-is-broken/

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cscotta
This title is significantly overstated.

See here: <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/technology/29hack.html>

"The encryption key itself does not enable surveillance of mobile calls, which
must still be overheard and identified from the digital stream of thousands of
calls transmitted through a single cellphone station.

The undertaking is complex because a digital call typically hops among up to
60 different broadcast frequencies during a single conversation, as the mobile
network operator maximizes the use of its available bandwidth."

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msuh
Nope it's not. The key is the only thing that prevents anyone on the street to
decipher the frequency hop pattern of the network. Once that's deciphered then
all you need is cheap equipment (as low as $1500) for the necessary hardware
and GSM processing software to do the eavesdropping. It really is BIG news.

