How can the FBI, CIA, MI6, MI5 and other intelligence services listen in to digital mobile phones, yet can't pick up internet telephones? I thought digital phones were scambled and impossible to re-scramble.

Vy_lette

Thought your new digital cell phone was safe from high-tech thieves? Guess again. Silicon Valley cypherpunks have broken the proprietary encryption technology used in 80 million GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) phones nationwide, including Motorola MicroTAC, Ericsson GSM 900 and Siemens D1900 models. Now crooks scanning the airwaves can remotely tap into a call and duplicate the owner's digital ID. "We can clone the phones," brags Marc Briceno, who organized the cracking. His advice: manufacturers should stick to publicly vetted codes that a bunch of geeks can't crack in their spare time. --By Declan McCullagh/Washington http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/19.67.html#subj1 Problem is for every one person writing up an encryption there will be many more trying to crack it. Even random numbers/codes aren't that random. It links back to some equation which can and probably will be cracked. Jul 09 07, 1:56 AM