Ho-hum. They've decoded cellphone encryption. Can listen to anything. Snore.
U.S. law prohibits the NSA from collecting the content of conversations between Americans without a court order. But experts say that if the NSA has developed the capacity to easily decode encrypted cellphone conversations, then other nations likely can do the same through their own intelligence services, potentially to Americans’ calls, as well. ...WaPo
Why doesn't that worry me as much as our own overbearing state worries me?
Encryption experts have complained for years that the most commonly used technology, known as A5/1, is vulnerable and have urged providers to upgrade to newer systems that are much harder to crack. Most companies worldwide have not done so ...WaPo
They may not have done so. But we are already in the position of knowing that if our rogue government agency can do something outside the law, it probably will.
Meanwhile, the communications industry is trying catch up with new coding. But get this:
Even with strong encryption, the protection exists only from a phone to the cell tower, after which point the communications are decrypted for transmission on a company’s internal data network. Interception is possible on those internal links, as The Washington Post reported last week. ...WaPo
When we crow about having so many choices in "social" media, are we troubled at all that an imperious state -- which has not exactly been invited to the party -- is able to make use of everything we say against us, if and when it wants to?
