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December 14, 2013 05:45 am GMT

NSA Can 'Easily' Break Cellphone Encryption, Report Says

Cellphone-shadow

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has the technical capacity to crack the most commonly-used cellphone encryption technology, and in doing so it can decode and access the content of calls and text messages, according to a Washington Post report published Friday.

Citing a top-secret document leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the report states that the agency can easily break a technology called A5/1, the world's most common stream cipher used to encrypt cellular data as it transmits to cell towers.

See also: Will Obama Rein in NSA Surveillance Powers?

Privacy and security researcher Ashkan Soltani, co-author the Post's report, explains that encryption experts have long been aware of the weakness of A5/1. The technology makes use of decades-old 2G GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) cellular network technology Read more...

More about Privacy, Surveillance, Encryption, Mobile, and Us World

Original Link: http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/xu24Ar8qa_U/

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