GSM phone calls not completely secure? Chris Paget demonstrated at DefCon 2010 hacking into 17 nearby GSM phones with a laptop and two RF antennas. He was able to intercept and record audience calls. Padget was highlighting a flaw in the 2G GSM system which directs phones to connect to the tower with the strongest signal regardless of origin, in this demo was Padget’s false tower.
The hack could only intercept outbound calls and that caller id could be a clue of a hack in progress.
“GSM is broken,” Paget said, “The primary solution is to turn it off altogether.”
As disappointing are Padget’s remarks, GSM is a cellular system that is used in a majority of cellular providers worldwide. I find it sad that this flaw isn’t resolved with the advent of 4G LTE networks on the way. I remember back in the early days of GSM here in the US when this technology was noted as being one of the most secure. How is it in 2010 we now see a flaw like this exposed? It sounds like vendors like Cellcrypt may have a bigger market with GSM mobile phones than I thought. So, GSM phone users are you concerned of some phreaker eavesdropping on your phone calls?
Via:Engadget
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