Photocredit: spierzchala via Flickr

A team of German scientists claimed on Tuesday to have cracked the code protecting the 80 percent of the world’s mobile phones using GSM (Global System for Mobiles) technology.  The operation, led by encryption expert Karsten Nohl, was carried out to highlight the weakness of GSM security and to urge networks to improve their systems, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Nohl and his team took five months to figure out the code, called A5/1, which is used by more than three billion people in 212 countries. Nohl, at a international conference of hackers called the Chaos Communication Congress being held this week in Berlin, claimed anyone armed with a laptop and two network cards can listen to your calls within 15 minutes, reported The Mail. Nohl has already published the code on the internet and was expected to run a practical demonstration at Chao on Wednesday, however, he postponed the demonstration while he discusses the legal implications of what he’s done with his lawyers.

Nohl insists that he released the code online to pressure telecommunications companies to upgrade their security. He urged operators and the GSM Association (GSMA) to re-examine its security measures and told The Guardian that important calls on negotiations among politicians or corporate executives could be at high risk of being easily intercepted.

The GSMA, who first put the A5/1 code in place, downplayed the urgency. “We are concerned but we don’t believe it will result in widespread eavesdropping tomorrow, or next week or next month,” James Moran, security director of the GSMA, told The Financial Times. “The reality is that a practical attack is beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of people.”

But Nohl argued that his research proves how much cheaper it’s become to hack into mobile phone systems – expensive technologies used by criminals in the past is no longer necessary, reported The Wall Street Journal. Simon Bransfield-Garth, chief executive of Cellcrypt, a mobile phone encryption company told the paper that to hack into a cellphone, “Today, it is going to require $1,500 of network equipment and a computer.”

If Nohl’s findings are true, networks will be forced to make expensive security upgrades. A decision may be reached at the next meeting of the GSMA security group in February, reported The Financial Times.