Posts Tagged ‘hack’

Mobile network hack reveals sensitive cellphone data

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

Researchers have shown how easy is to find the number of most US-based mobile phone structural cracks in GSM mobile networks and to track practically any GSM-enabled handset through the world.

In the end of 2008 Tobias Engel demonstrated how to find the whereabouts of mobile phones by tapping into mobile network databases. An independent researcher Nick DePetrillo from the Source Conference in Boston Wednesday, and Don Bailey of iSec Partners proved how with related techniques it is possible to find a person’s spot even when his number is unknown and to gather other details which most users assume are undetectable.

(more…)

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GSM-encryption hacked

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The communication over the gsm network is no longer secure. At the 26th Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin the security researcher Karsten Nohl from Germany presented how to eavesdrop cell phones without high financial and technical costs.

The encryption algorithm(A5/1) of the gsm network is over 20 years old and can be hacked by non-professionals with relatively easy means in a short time. Nohl said that he and his helpers had successfully hacked the gsm-encryption algorithm in a distributed attack within three month and with 40 computers. The needed codebook with the rainbow tables is already distributed via file sharing networks. With this practical tutorial for hacking the gsm network the attacks will be considerably faster in the future.

Therefore the Chaos Computer Club asks for a stronger encryption of the gsm network from the industrial association GSMA. The GSMA denies this because they say that although hacking the gsm network is theoretically possible, it is practically improbable and the application of the presented method of hacking the gsm network is in many countries illegal.

This news is based on a german article which can be found here.

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T-Mobile hacked

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

According to The Register, hackers have hacked into T-Mobile’s computers and the hackers claim they have stolen corporate data, customer accounts and the lot. As proof, they posted some configuration files that appear to be genuine.

“We have everything, their databases, confidental documents, scripts and programs from their servers, financial documents up to 2009.”

Really quite worrying. If true, I am curious what is meant by ‘customer accounts’, Would that include ways to get to call records? Personally, I think the opportunities and increasing incentive to use mobile devices (or information about their use) for malicious activities scary.

T-Mobile is in denial: “There is no evidence customer data is compromised.”

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