India’s Downward Spiral

Re:India’s Downward Spiral by tormeh on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @10:05AM (#8487362)

Are you sure? I thought GSM was encrypted by definition. I know it's been used as a NATO backup communications channel. Once the signal hits the base station, though, it's usually sent unencrypted down the wire.

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Re:India’s Downward Spiral by keenerd on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @01:50PM (#8488656)

India uses A5/0: http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/gsm-india-26616.html

Blackberry threatened with suspension because of encryption: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/blackberry-india/5732

(I guess not all GSM is done in the clear since you can use encryption but must share your keys.)

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Re:India’s Downward Spiral by maxerickson on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @10:13AM (#8487407)

The tower can (unilaterally, probably without any notification on the handset) select "A5/0" as the encryption algorithm. That's no encryption.

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Re:India’s Downward Spiral by tormeh on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @10:20AM (#8487452)

Oh, ok, news to me, but it sounds plausible.

.... But, uh, why would the government require that, when they can just listen to the signal after it's been unencrypted at the base station?

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Re:India’s Downward Spiral by TheLoneWolfling on Tuesday October 21, 2014 @10:43AM (#8487563)

So that not even the people at the cell phone base station know just how absurdly much data they are pulling in.

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