Tech
GSM crypto code cracked, says computer engineer
Karsten Nohl claims to have deciphered the secret algorithm used to encrypt most of the world's mobile phone calls
A German computer engineer said on Monday that he had cracked the secret code used to encrypt most of the world's mobile phone calls.
In an attempt to expose holes in the security of global wireless systems, 28-year-old Karsten Nohl cracked the 21-year-old GSM algorithm, which is used to encrypt 80 percent of the world's mobile calls, according to a report in The New York Times.
Nohl revealed his success at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. He said 24 people worked independently to reproduce the code book, or binary code log, for the algorithm, which contains the equivalent of about 2TB of data.
For more on this story, see Code that encrypts world's GSM mobile phone calls is cracked on ZDNet.com.