Hackers to get eavesdropping lessons on cell calls

[Dermot7]

Sounds scary!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66Q6NS20100727

[Searching_ _ _]

Cloning, Spoofing, Man-in-the-middle sniffing, and decrypting GSM

Chris Paget of h4rdw4re shares with us the in's and out's of GSM hacking. Armed with a USRP and his open-source software, Paget pretends to be your GSM tower, and a lot more.

Chris released at Shmoocon the OpenBootTS Live CD. Based on Debian, this mininal distribution acts as a GSM base station when connected to a USRP. OpenBootTS provides a cellular interface and Asterisk to terminate VoIP calls.

hak5 Chris Paget Interview @ Rev3

Chris Paget's Web site:
http://www.h4rdw4re.com/

If you want your own USRP:
http://www.ettus.com/

Free software to run the system:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openbootts/

Karsten Nohl discusses Hacking A5 GSM Encryption, Video and Slides.
h4rdw4re News
The video shows the setup and configuration of the system, a great presentation.

[Pfipps]

Once all communications go over the net, like VOIP, will this GSM problem be an issue?

Many tech people I have read have predicted that eventually, all communications and entertainment will be IP based, so it would be easier to implement a TLS like system, right?

I hope people begin to realize how much more value you can get by not having POTS telephone or Cable TV! All IP based, and then you can go crazy by yourself with encryption!