Secret Mobile Phone Code Cracked
December 30, 2009 by joel
Filed under Government
December 30, 2009
Financial Times
By Maija Palmer
Computer hackers this week said they had cracked and published the secret code that protects 80 per cent of the world’s mobile phones. The move will leave more than 3bn people vulnerable to having their calls intercepted, and could force mobile phone operators into a costly upgrade of their networks.
Karsten Nohl, a German encryption expert, said he had organised the hack to demonstrate the weaknesses of the security measures protecting the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and to push mobile operators to improve their systems.
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“We have given up hope that network operators will move to improve security on their own, but we are hoping that with this added attention, there will be increased demand from customers for them to do this,” he told the Financial Times.
“This vulnerability should have been fixed 15 years ago. People should now try it out at home and see how vulnerable their calls are.”
Mr Nohl was due to run a practical demonstration of the code book at the conference on Wednesday, but has postponed it while he takes advice from lawyers on whether the exercise would be legal. However, the code is already being widely circulated on the internet.
Mr Nohl, a widely consulted cryptography expert with a doctorate in computer engineering from the University of Virginia, waged a similar campaign this year which caused the DECT Forum, a standards group based in Bern, to upgrade the security algorithm for 800m cordless home phones.
The hacked GSM code could compromise more than 3bn people in 212 countries. It does not affect 3G phone calls, however, which are protected by a different security code.
The GSM Association, the industry body for mobile phone operators, which devised the A5/1 encryption algorithm 21 years ago, said they were monitoring the situation closely.
“We are concerned but we don’t believe it will result in widespread eavesdropping tomorrow, or next week or next month,” said James Moran, security director of the GSMA.
“The reality is that a practical attack is beyond the capabilities of the vast majority of people,” he said.
However, security experts disagreed, saying that cracking the code significantly lowered the bar for intercepting calls.
“A year ago it would have required equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and serious expertise to listen in to a call,” said Simon Bransfield-Garth, chief executive of Cellcrypt, a mobile phone encryption company.
“Today it is going to require $1,500 of network equipment and a computer. It is getting down to a mainstream price tag and moving to the point when it will be straightforward to do,” he continued.
Blood Test Results Not Always Communicated
November 20, 2009
Natural News
By David Gutierrez
In more than 7 percent of cases, doctors fail to report negative, abnormal or suspicious test results to their patients, according to a study conducted by researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
“If you’re a patient, it’s often assumed that no news is good news,” lead researcher Lawrence P. Casalino said. “But the bottom line is that is not always the case, and patients should not passively go along with that.”
Researchers examined the medical records of 5434 people between the ages of 50 and 69 who had undergone one of 11 blood tests or one of three other medical screenings at a number of primary care facilities along the West Coast or in the Midwest. They also collected 176 surveys from physicians in order to obtain information about each facility’s test result management procedures.
The researchers found that out of 1889 cases in which test results came back abnormal, 135 did not result in a documented communication with patient, translating into a one in 14 error rate. More than 50 percent of the facilities did not have a basic test processing or results communication protocol.
Facilities with well-defined test result management procedures have lower error rates than facilities with less well-defined procedures. Facilities that used a combination of paper and electronic records had higher failure rates than facilities that relied on either method exclusively.
“Patients should not accept it when a physician or clinician says they will let you know if something is wrong,” said Diane Pinakiewicz of the National Patient Safety Foundation. “Patients should ask for their test results on a consistent basis, whether or not the results are of concern — because, if you ask for them 100 percent of the time, there is no question you will always stay informed.”
“If you don’t get the result you’re waiting for, you really should call the doctor’s office and ask for it,” she said.
Click here for the full report
White House boasts: We “control” News Media
October 19, 2009
World Net Daily
By Aaron Klein
President Obama’s presidential campaign focused on “making” the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was “controlled,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.
“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn.
“One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters,” said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama’s chief campaign manager.
“We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it,” Dunn said.
Continued Dunn: “Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was. … Making the press cover what we were saying.”
Dunn was speaking at a Jan. 12, 2009, event focusing on Obama’s media tactics and hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development, which seeks to promote collaboration between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic. The event was held in Santo Domingo and was attended by the country’s president.
Dunn has been facing some criticism since she led a White House campaign last week against Fox News, slamming the top-rated network as an “arm of the Republican Party” and “opinion journalism masquerading as news.”
Fox hit back this past Friday, releasing a video of Dunn speaking to high school students last June in which she lists her two “favorite political philosophers,” including Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung, whose draconian policies are blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of people.
Click here for full report from World Daily Net
