NSA Able To Crack A5/1 Cellphone Crypto

jones_supa writes "The most widely used cellphone encryption cipher A5/1 can be easily defeated by the National Security Agency, an internal document shows. This gives the agency the means to intercept most of the billions of calls and texts that travel over radiowaves every day, even when the agency would not have the encryption key. Encryption experts have long known the cipher to be weak and have urged providers to upgrade to newer systems. Consequently it is also suggested that other nations likely have the same cracking capability through their own intelligence services. The vulnerability outlined in the NSA document concerns encryption developed in the 1980s but still used widely by cellphones that rely on 2G GSM. It is unclear if the agency may also be able to decode newer forms of encryption, such as those covered under CDMA."

Comments

Re: Only Logical

[cold fjord]

Its not a question of paranoia, but ignorance. I'll let you guess who that applies to.

Here is a hint: China, just by itself, has more than 3,000 front companies devoted to espionage. Russian spies are back a Cold War levels. There are plenty of other countries with an interest in the US.

American Universities Infected by Foreign Spies Detected by FBI

China also has more than 3,000 front companies in the U.S. “for the sole purpose of acquiring our technology,” former CIA officer S. Eugene Poteat, president of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers in McLean, Virginia, wrote in the fall/winter 2006-2007 edition of “Intelligencer: Journal of U.S. Intelligence Studies.”

Peter King warns: Hezbollah agents in U.S.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) warned Wednesday that there are hundreds — maybe even thousands — of Hezbollah agents inside the United States capable of launching a terror attack if U.S.-Iran tensions continue to escalate.

“The American intelligence community believes we are very much at risk for an attack by Iranian operatives, which would be Hezbollah, that is a terrorist-trained force in this country. It really is the ‘A’ team of international terrorism — far more sophisticated than Al Qaeda,” the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee said on CNN’s “Starting Point.”

Note that is just Hezbollah, not including Hamas, al Qaida, al-Shabaab, or many other terrorists or narco-terrorist organizations with a presence in the US.

And then there are the spies from Russia, Iran, Cuba, etc., etc., etc.

That is before you consider the Americans that go overseas to participate in Jihad who will return as trained, experienced terrorists.

Congressional Report: 40 Americans Training in Somalia Are 'Direct Threat' to U.S