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Sniffing and recording the signal is certainly doable, since that's what both cell phones and base stations do all day long. Now the tricky point is that communications are encrypted, and decrypting the data from the outside can prove tricky. "3G" is a wide term, but (normally) 3G communications use the block cipher KASUMI. The best known cryptanalytic ...

Regarding your dad's iPhone, there's nothing to worry about. This is just an automated attack against Wafer GSM-AUTO (SMS-capable) devices. The Wafer GSM-AUTO is a very simple Microcontroller. You can think of it as a remote power switch. It control anything from a security door switch to a normal light switch. I'll try to translate the commands for you ...

The hardware tool that is suited to his is the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (vendor site). You can get a leg up on decoding the transmissions by looking at the work done for the OpenBTS system. So, hardware-wise it's commodity equipment, though a few thousand dollars because it's not very common. Software wise, the groundwork is already there to pull ...

For the most part[1] they are encrypted, but not sufficiently enough to be considered as safe, tap resistant encryption. GSM uses 64-bit A5/1 encryption that is weak, to say the least. $15 phone, 3 minutes all that’s needed to eavesdrop on GSM call article from ArsTechnica covers it pretty well IMO, if you care to read more about it. However, it also ...

Yes, You can build a GSM basestation using an USRP and the OpenBTS. What you do, is announce that you are a basestation for i.e. AT&T, and if you have better signal power than other basestations in the area, AT&T cellular phones will start connecting to your basestation. Normally, the mobile phones would encrypt the sent data using keys that only ...

It sounds like the technology you experienced is a call-agent blocker. These systems are designed to reduce fraud by not giving the call center your information, instead they transfer you to a computer who will process your pin, then if correct, will transfer it back to the calling agent. In this way, the agent can verify your identity without ever hearing ...

Yes, all GSM calls use an A5/1 stream cipher. It has been found that this is fairily easy to decrypt using a Rainbow Table. Additionally, the FBI admits to intercepting all phone conversations in the US. So yes, it is encrypted, and cell phone companies don't give a damn about your privacy. If you care about privacy, you should use RedPhone and ...

The most commonly deployed 2G (GPRS/EDGE) ciphers have now been publicly broken, and the evidence indicates that they were once again intentionally left weak by the mobile industry designers. See this news coverage: Researchers Hack Mobile Data Communications - Technology Review Codebreaker Karsten Nohl: Why Your Phone Is Insecure By Design - Forbes ...

The following presentation from Blackhat, is exploiting the Intel Centrino drivers in Microsoft Windows. Remote and Local Exploitation of Network Drivers Attacking a USB modem in the similar way, in contrast to the Intel Centrino attack, is much more unlikely. The attacker is most likely stuck at the TCP/IP layer, where in the wireless case, the attacker ...

To answer your exact question, to the best of my knowledge no security vulnerabilities from USB dongles have gotten any attention in the past years. I guess that was what you're looking for? However, there are known cases of rogue USB devices that are used to backdoor computers. Some security companies doing penetration testing and social engineering ...

Defcon has had a few presentations on this subject. An active attacker can turn off encryption altogether, never mind just changing it. Also there is an open source program available just for this. I will edit this with the link when I find it. Software: http://openbts.sourceforge.net/ Antennas https://www.ettus.com/product/category/Antennas RF ...

who is the governing body responsible? I've been out of the industry for a few years, but I'd be surprised if anything has changed since I worked there. There is no formal constraints on the content of the sender id, it's really very much up to the Telco. In the UK Ofcom extended their recommendations to providers, (you can read the ofcom stuff here - ...

GPRS does not provide strong protection of the data. There is some cryptography applied on the wireless link between the mobile device and base station, but this cryptography has significant problems (see research on GSM and more research). Also, once the data reaches the core network, the data is transmitted in the clear, unencrypted, for the rest of the ...

I would say that cellular networks are more secure than almost any other wireless network. The answer is probably.. "No less secure than a home broadband connection." Other answers mention things that are issues with ISP's in general and aren't really a problem with the dongle.