How (in)secure are cell phones in reality?
- by Aron Rotteveel
I was recently re-reading an old Wired article about the Kaminsky DNS Vulnerability and the story behind it.
In this article there was a quote that came across a little bit exaggerated to me:
"The first thing I want to say to
you," Vixie told Kaminsky, trying to
contain the flood of feeling, "is
never, ever repeat what you just told
me over a cell phone."
Vixie knew how easy it was to
eavesdrop on a cell signal, and he had
heard enough to know that he was
facing a problem of global
significance. If the information were
intercepted by the wrong people, the
wired world could be held ransom.
Hackers could wreak havoc. Billions of
dollars were at stake, and Vixie
wasn't going to take any risks.
When reading this I could not help but feel like it was a bit blown-up and theatrical. Now, I know absolutely nothing about cell phones and the security problems involved, but to my understanding, cell phone security has quite improved over the past few years.
So my question is: how insecure are cell phones in reality? Are there any good articles that dig a bit deeper into this matter?