Nohl reveals the loopholes in GSM network

To spy on communications between a GSM mobile operator and a Motorola, there’s a program that can be downloaded from the Internet. There’s a little arguing the statement that over 80% of phones in the world operate in GSM.

According to Karsten Nohl Berlin, who works for German-based research lab, these tools can not only hear and read SMS conversations of others, but even emulate a phone and SIM card.

He revealed that the flaws in the wireless GSM technology help the hackers to gain remote access to make phone calls and short messages.

A question than comes to mind that, is the phone so insecure as compared to a PC? The answer is, it depends on the telephone, computer and operating system. While 90% of computers have antivirus and firewall, only 12% of smart
phones are protected.

Between hundreds of computer experts at an annual conference of the Chaos Computer Club, Nohl revealed that "the phone of another person can be emulated without having access to the device itself."  He revealed that the key is
to exchange a mobile communication takes place with the operator just before placing a call.

Pointing to several series of numbers on the screen of your computer, Nohl explained that "every number has a specific meaning, such as incoming call or end of the communication."

The cryptographer further revealed that GSM technology has been less effective and weak in implementing security professionals due to the weaknesses in cryptographic algorithms. However, mobile operators often blame the GSMA association
responsible for the security dilemma in the GSM standard.

Movistar, Vodafone, Orange and Telstra have recently sent GSMA statement: "The GSMA and mobile network operators have confidence in the safety of existing 2G GSM networks, and real attacks on real networks compared to actual customers
is very unlikely"

Likely or not, GSM has two major problems in their communications protocols, which affect not only mobile but all those devices that connect to the network, be it a smart phone or laptop.

The GSMA mobile operators’ organization needs to alter the settings to make it considerably more difficult deny any outside access without affecting the use of device.

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Posted by Farasat Ali on Dec 30 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry