German hacker has broken GSM security encryption?!

AT&T and T-Mobile are the two largest GSM wireless carriers in the USA. This clain was made by, Nohl at the Chaos Communication Congress conference in Berlin, according to The New York Times. This proves that the current algorithms used to encrypt phone calls are not trustworthy enough to prevent lapses in security, which means a possible invasion of our privacy.

In response to the arguments made by Nohl at the conference, the GSM Association stated that the security threat is not as dire as has been stated by Nohl and what he has done, even if for a good cause, is illegal under U.S. and British laws. It was initially stated by Nohl that this hacking was basically done in order to test the GSM security encryption and was purely academic in nature.

Now even if the GSM Association is not serious about this threat experts like Stan Schatt, a security analyst with ABI Research, agree that it is binding on the association to take steps so that the sanctity of mobile phone calls is secured in every way possible. According to him,"most network operators have not yet invested [the time and money required] to make the security upgrade," to the new 128-bit A5/1 encryption algorithm, which is still considered secure.

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