Code breakers crack GSM cellphone encryption

[David Honig]

At 03:32 PM 9/7/03 -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
>If the cellphone companies in 197 countries want to correct the code errors
>that expose them to trickery and abuse, they will have to call in each
>customer to make a change in the cellphone's programming, or replace all of
>the cellular phones used by their subscribers.

I've read that the lifecycle of a cell phone is about 2 years, 
FWIW.

During a kids-channel TV show, I saw that if you buy 4 dolls
you get a prepaid phone free.  Took me a while to get over
that future-shock.

>A copy of the research was sent to GSM authorities in order to correct the
>problem, and the method is being patented so that in future it can be used
>by the law enforcement agencies.

"Laughing my ass off."  Since when do governments care about patents? 
How would this help/harm them from exploiting it?   Not that
high-end LEOs haven't already had this capacity ---Biham et al
are only the first *open* researchers to reveal this.









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