yes this "hack" has been out for a little over a year if I remember, it was just published in main stream.
Quote:
News to me ?
to your response you wouldn't see this "hack" because it is a hack, if you are a LEO then you would have subpoena the wire-tap for legal reasons and not "hacked the encryption" as that wouldn't go well in court.
regardless of the ability to decrypt GSM its still illegal to break that encryption provided you have equipment that can properly receive the signal (cough GNU radio) so that's why the statement that "police have been able to do this" is sort of just a journalist fluff,
Law enforcement and criminals have also had the ability to shoot to kill for some time now as well.
should also mention that its equivalent to breaking into a 802.11 network, sure people can do it but don't make it legal, and LEO cant do it with out a warrant all the same (well so we are led to believe :D ) its just more common to hear of a 802.11 WPA crack because the hardware is affordable and in best buy. you cant run down to best buy and get a linksys GSM repeater (yet) but as you see more hardware on the market (cough cellular modems with crappy firmware) it gives the public more ability to fuzz technology.