By Adeel
Billions of mobile phone users around the world are at risk of having their calls intercepted and recorded after hackers broke the encryption used to protect 80 per cent of the world’s mobiles.
People regularly trading in confidential information, such as Government officials and executives, would be the most likely eavesdropping targets but virtually anyone with enough skills and determination could harness the research for nefarious means, security experts warn.
German computer engineer Karsten Nohl told a hacker conference in Berlin that he and his team decoded the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) encryption algorithm to draw attention to gaping security holes in the technology and drive mobile operators to patch them.
About 80 per cent – or 3.5 billion – of the world’s mobiles are based on GSM, which is over 20 years old.
Nohl, who has published the secret GSM encryption code online, told the Chaos Communication Congress that a skilled eavesdropper using basic equipment and free software could be recording phone calls within 15 minutes.
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