Hackers Break GSM Cell Phone Code

A group of hackers trying to force the cell phone industry into upgrading their security claims to have broken and published the code that keeps calls made on billions of phones secret.

According to a report in the Financial Times, German computer engineer and encryption expert Karsten Nohl told a hackers' convention in Berlin this week he had made public the encryption code protecting GSM phones in more than 212 countries - estimated at 80 percent of all the world's cell phones.

Nohl, 28, told the Chaos Communication Congress that a team of 24 hackers had managed to reproduce the code keeping GSM calls safe, proving that "existing GSM security is inadequate".

"We have given up hope that network operators will move to improve security on their own, but we are hoping that with this added attention, there will be increased demand from customers for them to do this," he the FT.

Other encryption experts told the London-based newspaper that technology required to hack into consumer GSM calls was rapidly becoming affordable to the layman, and the skills required to use it were not beyond those of a "skilled computer engineer".

Nohl had vowed to give an onstage demo at the hackers' conference of how to use the revealed code, but that was on hold Wednesday as he consulted lawyers on the legality of that maneuver.

The code break by Nohl and his team does not affect phones operating with 3G encryption.

The global GSM Association is scheduled to meet in February, according to the FT report, a meeting which could see a review of security measures - last upgraded 21 years ago.

The GSMA told the FT they were "closely monitoring" the situation, but doubted the hack would result in multitudes of personal phone calls being tapped into illegally in the coming weeks or months.