SERIOUS flaws have emerged in the encryption system that protects the privacy of most of the world’s mobile phones. The weak points mean calls can be cracked using relatively cheap computing and listening equipment, allowing almost anybody to listen in.
The flaws, discovered by a team of Israeli cryptologists, affect the GSM (global system for mobile communications) set-up, which was designed in the late 1980s and is now used by 850 million people around the world. The system has two levels of encryption – a strong version known as A5/1 and a weaker one known as A5/2. When a call…
