Possible GSM Security Flaw
Last Post: December 31, 2011:
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May be worth keeping an eye on how this plays out:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/27/us-mobile-security-idUSTRE7BQ05020111227
Dave
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The fellow which unveiled the story seems to be quite reliable:
[url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karsten_Nohl]http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karsten_Nohl[/url] -
For any newbies who are wondering what this has to do with Wi-Fi, there are a couple of important issues:
1. FMC ( Fixed Mobile Convergence ) is becoming more and more popular. FMC is found in such things as dual mode phones. In this mode, the phone is capable of connecting to a cellular network. The phone is also capable of connecting to a Wi-Fi network, for example. There is a large amount of common hardware and firmware. The OS will take care of parts of both functions. If there turns out to be a problem with the GSM side of things, it is possible that the Wi-Fi side could be affected. For the consumer, convergence is becoming important ( "I just want to connect a network that gives me the best data rates/voice quality etc. I don't care what it is ( Wi-Fi, cellular, Wi-Max etc ) . If one network ( e.g. cellular ) is too slow, I want to easily connect to something else ( e.g. Wi-Fi ) "
2. Although the GSM system is the most popular in the world, and most of the US uses other systems ( e.g CDMA based types ), in certain parts of the US, an older GSM type of system called PCS-1900 is still in use. Other systems have a lot of "GSM type" features.
There is a little bit of information about cellular security in the back of chapter 4 of the CWSP book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM
Dave
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