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Open Source Attempt To Crack GSM Encryption
Lexta writes with an interesting tidbit from IEEE Spectrum: "'Karsten Nohl, chief research scientist with H4RDW4RE, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based security research firm, is mounting what could be the most ambitious attempt yet to compromise the GSM phone system.' The intended approach is to create an open source project to spread the computation of a giant look-up table across more than 80 machines. Interestingly, they've openly stated that nVidia's CUDA technology will be used to execute parallel elements of the problem on GPUs as well."
Big deal. No one still uses their cellphone to make calls anyway.
"GSM is the de facto wireless telephone standard in Europe. GSM has over one billion users worldwide and is available in 190 countries. Since many GSM network operators have roaming agreements with foreign operators, users can often continue to use their mobile phones when they travel to other countries. ( http://www.tech-faq.com/gsm.shtml )".
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Most importantly, handsets use less power when on GSM.
I don't see GSM being killed for a long, long time. It's like DVD, an example of "good enough" for majority of population, especially those who basically just call and text. 3G benefits are either not used or manifest themselves in very specific scenarios, "modem" function mostly.
Security also is good enough. As this attempt shows, it's non-trivial to crack. And "lawful wiretapping" bypasses it anyway also for UMTS.
Precisely, my iPhone battery lasts days on GSM, hours on 3G. What I don't understand is why phones can't do some sort of hybrid: GSM for standby and voice, and 3G for data? Best of both worlds!