Comments on: Cell phone, VoIP technologies lack security, experts say

Speakers at security confab LayerOne say people should be careful with sensitive information while using GSM-based mobile phones and most VoIP systems.

[CyloBob]

These so called experts are just headline Grabbing. I agree on the Vonage Voice, obviously they haven't cracked Skype and what is the use of looking at the subscriber identifiers on a mobile phone call? You can't see or know who the user is, all you know is that there are some cell phones connected to the base station. The IMSI is a 15 digit identifier that does not contain the subscribers telephone number. I can see encrypted data on a cable TV channel, but I can't see the pcture....

[ynotbecreative]

A lot of the VoIP security issues revolve around the fact that the telcos make it nearly impossible for a non-telco to innovate anything related to the phone. The sad fact is that those very same telcos have no desire, except when necessary to innovate or apply those innovations to anything.

Secondly, standard POTS telephone service is not secure at all, so to trounce on VoIP is only telling half of the story.

Another thing to consider is the government wants access to lines, which means whenever a company tried to make a secure form of anything, they get a nice little microscope in their face and anything they are doing.

Be balanced - you're a journalist. Tell the whole story. Allow the reader to make his or her own conclusions. Your premise is right - security is lax on these forms of communication, but that is the case for more than just what you write, yet you write it as if these are the only insecure forms out there. That is deceptive, and divisive. Lastly, don't make public the tools for doing exactly what you say is wrong. It makes you appear just as blackhat as those you wish to warn people about. You have just become the enabler for those that wanted to do it, but were not sure of how to begin. This makes you just as much at fault - maybe not legally, but ethically.

[m.afshari]

How true is it on cracking or hacking into the GSM connections? I personally do not believe its that simple? I know that GSM uses 128 Bit encryption for transmitting information and 128 nowadays is nothing!! But give more reference to this topic and open the discussion?

[nicceg]

The analog telephone system is very secure and simple to attack.
GSM is 15 years old, but I still think it is enough to stop most of the attacks.

[acwebsolutions]

The functioning of wireless VoIP phones is similar to that of regular VoIP phones but Wireless VoIP phones combine VoIP technology and Wi-Fi (wLAN) systems. Users need to be in the range of the wireless node in order to make and receive calls. And when they are in the Wi-Fi?s reach, they are able to do a lot of the same calling functions enabled by regular desktop VoIP phones. When one is already equipped with a wireless local area network as well as VoIP phones, adding wireless VoIP phones can be a logical step.

Wireless VoIP phones are also known as VoWLAN or voice over wireless local network areas and Wi-Fi phones. The working of wireless VoIP phones involves a data network to which Wi-Fi equipment is connected. The network itself can either be independent, or connected to the Internet or the public phone system. The equipment enables high-speed wireless connection to unlimited access points.

Each access point has an antenna to catch the signal from the Wi-Fi equipment and broadcast it in a 300-foot radius or a hot spot. Within the radius all Wi-Fi enabled laptops, personal digital organizers and wireless phones can tune into the signal.

In wireless VoIP phones, the voice is converted into segments of data for transmission from the phone antenna to the Wi-Fi radio waves and then received by the data network. Here the data segments reverse the process to reach an extension or the traditional phone network. In other words, an extension can be carried around.

Although there is no argument about wireless VoIP phones being advantageous, they have their share of shortcomings as well. Fore one, they can not yet completely replace hard-wire VoIP phones mainly due to lack of reliability and the limited functions of wireless phones currently available in comparison to desktop phones.

However the biggest disadvantage in wireless VoIP phones is the limit on the number of simultaneous calls that can be made. The maximum number of calls in each wireless system cannot exceed five or ten. This seriously undermines its call handling capability in a large corporate environment.

Nevertheless, the dramatic reduction in operational costs has made it possible for wireless operators with high quality compressed VoIP to bring the ease and comfort of cordless calling to the VoIP world. Morover Phones like the ones from panasonic http://www.panateldirect.com are a very good addon

[FH1042]

Really this article is much ado about nothing. If David Hulton has really cracked the encryption, which isn't by any means a sure thing, then we know of one person in a playing field of millions of simutaneous connections. What are the chances that your call is being monitored. CNET should stick to providing verifiable information.
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