GSM - A5 Strength

[Brian Gladman]

Paul Leyland <pleyland@microsoft.com> wrote
To: 'ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk' <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Date: 08 April 1998 09:31
Subject: RE: GSM - A5 Strength


>Markus Kuhn wrote:
>
>> Good discussions should focus on the weakest links
>>  in overall protection concepts, not just on cryptographic algorithms.
>
>Amen to that!
>
>For some reason, technical attacks on the hardest link are often more
>interesting and/or more exciting than attacking the weakest links.
Perhaps
>the latter activity has a flavour of cheating, of breaking the rules of the
>game.  Only the cads, bounders and all-round bad guys do that...
>


Is there any difference in the legal situation here?

For example, is the tapping of a phone line without a warrant illegal in the
UK?  Is there any difference if a radio intercept is made instead?  And what
is the status in both cases if these actions are pursued by non government
organisations or private individuals.

That is if I tap a phone line I presume I am doing something illegal.  Is
this also true if I capture a GSM radio transmission and decrypt it?

         Brian