eXDee: Article

Apparently goverment agencies have been wiretapping for a while in the US, but what about the idea of anyone who can afford it being able to listen in?

Thoughts?

The 64-bit encryption method used by GSM, known as A5/1, was first cracked in theory about 10 years ago, and researchers David Hulton and Steve, who declined to give his last name, said today that expensive equipment to help people crack the encryption has been available online for about 5 years.

freitasm: From the article:

The 64-bit encryption method used by GSM, known as A5/1, was first cracked in theory about 10 years ago, and researchers David Hulton and Steve, who declined to give his last name, said today that expensive equipment to help people crack the encryption has been available online for about 5 years.

So, no this is not something new. It's just a faster way to do it.

About your worry of governments listening to conversations and reading SMS, it's called "legal intercept" in New Zealand and as Fraktul pointed out this is common stuff. The government may request authorisation to listen to conversations in the course of an investigation, etc. The telcos have just to plug into the stream and record what's needed. This is nothing new and there's no "conspiracy theory" behind it.

"Breaking" the GSM encryption is only beneficial for illegal wiretapping, those that are not conducted by officers in the course of a lawful investigation - a very different matter and criminal.

As for "who decides", it is normal process. The police or any other authority requests a judge to issue an order, present it to the operator and then it goes from there. There's no "big brother" stuff involved.

kingoe: Vodafone NZ in late last year handed over thee private key for it's Network to the NZ S.I.S.

kingoe:I love using WLAN for VOIP etc. in hotspots though.