Cell Phone Interception At Def Con

ChrisPaget writes "I'm planning a pretty significant demonstration of GSM insecurity at Defcon next week, where I'll intercept and record cellular calls made by my attendees, live on-stage, no user-input required. As you can imagine, intercepting cellphones is a Very Big Deal in the eyes of the law; this blog post is an attempt to reassure everyone that their privacy is being taken seriously despite the nature of the demo. I'm not just making it up either — the EFF have helped significantly with the details."

Comments

Will there be any GSM calls with "no user-input"?

[sznupi]

Is jamming UMTS network also planned? (yes, lots of folks still don't have handsets with UMTS; but at Defcon...)

Re:Just be careful

[Itninja]

Are you sure just intercepting is illegal? I have had police scanners in the past that would pick up cell phone (and nearby cordless phone) conversations all time. My understanding at the time was the law was violated only if I recorded and/or distributed the information. This was years ago, so the laws may have changed....or maybe it was illegal all along and I am a huge criminal.

Re:Encryption is the future

[houghi]

Encryption on a large scale will be forbidden, I am sure. The excuse will be terrorism and children. Together with the "If you have nothing to hide, show it."-excuse. Privacy? You don't need no stinkin' privacy.

Re:Smart phone hacks?

[RebootKid]

I leave the hard drive out of my laptop, boot off of read-only media. I write back to flash drives for data that needs saving. I leave my phone in airplane mode. Never had a problem, but have been called "paranoid" ;)