As most of the call communication is GSM-based across the world, Blackberry’s security research team has revealed that the calls made on Global System for Mobile(GSM) Communication standard can easily be intercepted by hackers who can not only listen to the conversations but can induce them with interpreted info which can lead to political crisis or even lead to World War 3.
Revealing the same at the DefCon Security Conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, a team of researchers from Blackberry displayed how the calls can be hacked by the bad guys.
“But that’s not everyone’s cup of tea as the calls are encrypted at many steps all along their path”, says Campbell Murray, the global head of delivery, Blackberry Cybersecurity.
Due to the flaws in the error control mechanisms and the way the keys are encoded, the whole communication medium is reigning under cyber threat which helps hackers to set-up malicious base stations called ‘stingrays’ to intercept calls and spy on the communication taking place between two mobile devices adds Murray.
What’s most surprising about this revelation is that this vulnerability has been existing from decades and will also be extended when 5G network gets implemented across the United States.
So are all networks operating in the US vulnerable to hacks?
Well, as Sprint and Verizon services are being offered on CDMA technology, those customers using it are safe from such privacy concerns. But AT&T and T- Mobile offer services on GSM standard and so those using the said networks might feel perturbed with the news.
