Could GSM phones have a major security flaw?
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Speaking to Reuters prior to making his speech at the convention in Berlin, Nohl said that attacks on hundreds of thousands of phones could be done in a "short timeframe." In Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, attacks on corporate landlines have occurred. One common fraud uses premium-service numbers similar to the "976" numbers that at one time were popular in the States. Those involved in the fraud hack into a company's phone system and dial the premium-service number countless times, According to the Reuters report, the fraudsters collect their money, close up shop and re-open somewhere else. The company never finds out about the hacking until they get their phone bill and usually some arrangement is made with the phone company having to eat some of the charges. Nohl has said that he will not go over the details of the attack during the conference.
What Nohl will discuss at the conference is the rankings that show Germany's T-Mobile and France's SFR at the top of a list of mobile carriers that offer their customers the best protection against a hack attack. 32 carriers in 11 countries outside of the U.S. were tested by researchers on how easy it
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The countries involved in the security test |
"None of the networks protects users very well," Nohl said, "Mobile network is by far the weakest part of the
mobile ecosystem, even when compared to a lot attacked Android or iOS
devices." But there is some hope. Nohl said that carriers could improve their security by merely updating their software.
source: GSMMap.org via Reuters
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10 Comments
1. brenner182 posted on 27 Dec 2011, 09:04 1 0
Well this is bad news bears all over the place.
6. tuminatr posted on 27 Dec 2011, 20:09 0 0
the simple answer is yes, I don't remember witch collage tech lab successfully cloned sim cards and intercepted and listened to calls over the air about five years ago
2. Conan_Kudo posted on 27 Dec 2011, 09:34 1 0
Most carriers didn't upgrade their security algorithms when they made the transition to UMTS from 2G GSM. So... yeah... We've known about this for a long time now...
3. Droid_X_Doug posted on 27 Dec 2011, 10:36 1 1
Well, I don't have GSM service, and if memory serves, CDMA has yet to be hacked, so I am feeling pretty good. Bummer for the GSM folks, however. Especially if the security hole is due to carrier laziness. Nothing like a lawsuit to compel the carriers to tighten up their security.
4. networkdood posted on 27 Dec 2011, 11:26 0 1
I doubt anyone has been able to do this with AT&T GSM phones.
5. G2Noobin posted on 27 Dec 2011, 14:00 1 1
I just wanted to say droid x doug i accidently hit the thumbs down and not up.....so phantom thumbs up and on an account of false pressing thumbs down. lolz.
Iphone is only great cuz people that are not tech savy enjoy structure, those who are tech savy enjoy freedom.
That could be applied to society, people with very little knowledge on how to live enjoy structure, those that know them selves and limits, enjoy societal freedom.
You could almost talk about soul evolution here. young souls are numb to experience, and old souls well they are just old.
7. arcq12 posted on 28 Dec 2011, 07:16 0 0
iPhone definitely has a lot of tech savy users, proof?? Cydia and its 3rd party apps.. theres also a huge jailbreaking community out there..
bottom line is, both Android and iOS has their own tech savy users and those who just doesnt give a sh*t and just wanna use their phone normally..
9. LordBonztie posted on 31 Dec 2011, 18:17 0 0
been hacking gsm carriers for 5 years now. enjoying free internet. thank you.
10. ladyhaly posted on 01 Jan 2012, 02:27 0 0
This sucks for people living in developing countries, since the corporate companies on the said locations don't listen to anyone. They just like to make a lot of money for themselves... Never mind the consumers, who do not have an option btw.
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