GSM Security Broken, Finally

It was well known for a long time that A5/1, the GSM encryption code is not secure. Now it has finally been broken. Nobody ever believed that our phone calls were safe from the secret services of this world. The issue is that now the calls and, even worse, SMSes are vulnerable to criminals, too. This is a problem M-TANs are used in online banking, for example.

But not all is lost: UMTS uses another algorithm, called MISTY or KASUMI, which is still considered safe. So, use M-TANs only if you have a 3G uplink.

Quantum Computer Chip

One popular use for the quantum computer is the factorization of big numbers. If one could factor a big number as quickly as it can be multiplied from its prime components the RSA algorithm would be broken. Theory says that this should be possible, but no practical implementation has been seen so far. The most important obstacle is the quantum noise that leads to random changes in quantum states.

Researchers at the university of Bristol have found a way to cram a complete quantum computer on one silicon chip. However, the largest number they can factor right now is 15. Also, the peripheral devices still fill up a complete desktop.

In order to factor larger numbers the quantum computer needs more degrees of freedom, which are called 'qbits'. Miniaturizing the computer might help with increasing the number of qbits.

iPhones' Hardware encryption without Key Management

Jonathan Zdziarski claims that the "hardware encryption" of the new iPhone 3Gs can be bypassed by removing the PIN that somehow manages said hardware encryption.

I don't know how this is implemented, but given that the iPhone OS is not unbreakable, it seems recommendable to manage the key for that encryption in the hardware encryption device, too.

Anyway, if Jonathan can recover the files without giving the PIN (we have to take his word here, as the clip does not really demonstrate it) something is really wrong there.