EARLY WARNING - Cell Phones and Hackers

EARLY WARNING – Cell Phones & Hackers



By Nikki Viljoen – Viljoen Consulting April 2011.

When I saw the title of an article that said “More than 3 billion mobile phones could soon be hacked”, I must admit, my heart sank. Not because my conversations are about anything illegal, you understand, it’s just that it’s one more way in which my privacy can be compromised.

Apparently “voice calls via mobile phones use a kind of encryption that is 15 years old and a way to crack the code has been found” says one hacker.

Now that statement really made me see red . . . in all its different shades! The implication of course that in 15 years the technology has not been improved and given what we pay for cell phones that are supposed to be ‘state of the art’, in terms of technology – this is just not acceptable at all!

Although none of my conversations are of an illegal nature, many of them are of a confidential nature and in view of the fact that I sign a confidentiality agreement with many of my clients’, this news really puts me at risk, especially if someone is listening in when I discuss confidential issues with my clients.

According to Thomas Jonsson, a Vice President at Nokia “Hacks have been alleged before and have proven to be incorrect. The history and wide usage of GSM shows that there’s good reason to have confidence in its security.”

Well I’m very pleased that Thomas Jonsson feels secure because in the same article, the very same GSM Association stated that “Academics have already set out how to crack the A5/1 logarithm but none has led to a ‘practical attack’ that can be used on live commercial GSM networks”.

This, to me means “watch this space”! It’s not the academics that I am worried about!

The fact of the matter is this – if the code has been cracked by the academics (who are usually perceived as being the good guys), then it is only a matter of time before it gets cracked by the bad guys, which will put me and billions of people just like me at risk!

Come on GDM – get it together!

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za