
Sources: We were pressured to weaken mobile security in the 80's - kmskontorp
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Sources-We-were-pressured-to-weaken-the-mobile-security-in-the-80s-7413285.html#.Us8n75CJDAQ
======
_wmd
This sounds suspiciously like modern context being retrofitted to an ancient
story.. there were (and still are) much bigger problems in GSM than just the
cipher in use, say for example, that phones do not authenticate the network,
and the network dictates the handset's encryption mode.

It seems curious that the intelligence community would be so vocal in such a
directly attributable manner when simpler means of interception exist, and
when many other reasons could be given for reducing the key size (e.g. cost
seems an obvious one, given we're talking about the 80s here), not to mention
that A5/1 itself had major flaws that puts it on the level of WEP in terms of
the ease with which it could (and still can) be cracked.

~~~
gnaffle
From what I understood, it wasn't the intelligence community that directly
requested the changes, but rather the British part of the GSM working group
(whatever that was called at the time).

------
majke
Relevant report by Srlabs.de: [http://gsmmap.org/assets/pdfs/gsmmap.org-
country_report-Unit...](http://gsmmap.org/assets/pdfs/gsmmap.org-
country_report-United_States_of_America-2013-08.pdf)

 _Conclusion: The GSM networks in USA implement only few of the protection
measures observed in other GSM networks._

Encryption algorithms:

    
    
             AT&T  T-Mobile
        A5/0  45%    17%    (ie: unencrypted)
        A5/1  55%    83%

------
salient
Snowden docs make it official: The NSA can crack 30-year-old A5/1 crypto

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/archaic-but-
widel...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/archaic-but-widely-used-
crypto-cipher-allows-nsa-to-decode-most-cell-calls/)

Does anyone know if LTE security is that much better? I imagine that even if
the ciphers are good, there are probably a ton of ways for agencies like NSA
or even FBI to intercept the calls before being encrypted, even without
warrants.

~~~
tptacek
Didn't Karsten Nohl give a presentation about cracking A5/1? Of course NSA can
crack A5/1.

~~~
e12e
Yeah, I seem to recall A5/1 was cracked quite a while a ago (by an Israeli
team?)?

Hm, 1999?
[http://cryptome.org/a51-crack.htm](http://cryptome.org/a51-crack.htm)

------
danohuiginn
Ross Anderson, writing in 1994:

"Indeed, my spies inform me that there was a terrific row between the NATO
signals agencies in the mid 1980's over whether GSM encryption should be
strong or not. The Germans said it should be, as they shared a long border
with the Evil Empire; but the other countries didn't feel this way. and the
algorithm as now fielded is a French design."

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/uk.telecom/TkdCaytoeU4...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/uk.telecom/TkdCaytoeU4/Mroy719hdroJ)

