BBC on Karsten’s GSM Hacks

24 April 2011

Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut demonstrated their GSM hack for the BBC: Mobiles fall prey to hack attacks [follow link to see video], BBC News, 20 April 2011.

Who could possibly eavesdrop on your modern, digitally encrypted handset?

It should take the kind of technology and resources only available to the security services.

Yet two men wearing hoodie tops have managed to crack the system.

Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut don’t look like secret agents, sitting behind their fold-out table next to a pile of old Motorola phones.

But these two security researchers have discovered a cheap, relatively simple way of intercepting mobile calls.

“We have been looking at GSM technology for a while and we find it to be pretty much outdated in every aspect of security and privacy,” said Mr Nohl.