Code breakers crack GSM cellphone encryption

[Ian Grigg]

"Trei, Peter" wrote:

> Why the heck would a government agency have to break the GSM encryption
> at all?

Once upon a time, it used to be the favourite
sport of spy agencies to listen in on the
activities of other countries.  In that case,
access to the radio waves was much more juicy
than access to the POTS.

I've not heard anything explicitly on this,
but I'd expect satellites to be able to pick
up GSM calls.  (One of the things I have heard
is that the Chinese sold fibre networking to
Iraq, and the Russians sold special phones
with better crypto.  Don't know how true any
of that is.)

Also, the patent issue will work very well in
countries where there are laws against hacking
and cracking and so forth.  Rather than have
such laws subject to challenge in the supreme
court, a perp can be hit with both patent
infringement and illegal digital entry.  The
chances that anyone can defeat both of those
are slim.

(OTOH, I wonder if it is possible to patent or
licence something that depends on an illegal
act?)


iang

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