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Posts tagged with: fellowship

GSM: global social menace?

Last night I heard Ali Gündüz speak about Free Software GSM. During the talk, and in the following discussion, many interesting points were made:

  • The GSM standard is controlled by only four or five international corporations
  • The standard is very complicated for even experts and seasoned developers to grasp
  • Mobile phone manufacturers have no access to the source code of the GSM modems that they use in their devices – they don’t know how they work
  • Many phones have two processors – one dedicated solely to the GSM modem, meaning that even Free Software and open hardware phones do not have access to the way that GSM is used (even Openmoko phones)
  • GSM is incapable of meaningfully encrypting your calls, and its common practice for carriers to allow no encryption at all (in some countries encrypting calls is actually illegal)
  • With only a few thousand euros, and the motive to do so, it is possible to eavesdrop on any GSM based conversation
  • Several countries’ law enforcement agencies use GSM eavesdropping without warrants
  • Network licenses issued by governments are required to set up your own GSM network, are prohibitively expensive, and often already all sold to large carriers.
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