Posts Tagged ‘GSM’
War Texting lets hackers unlock cars via OnStar
Cellular-based automotive roadside assistance services like GM’s OnStar and BMW Assist allow remote unlocking of vehicles by communicating with remote servers via standard mobile networks. Now a pair of security systems engineers have managed to prove it takes just a few hours of clever reverse engineering to crack the in-car cellular network-based technology to gain access to vehicles. They call their method “War Texting.”
Don Bailey and Mathew Solnik of security company iSEC Partners set up an ad-hoc GSM network, which allowed them to communicate directly with the in-car system, posing as authorized servers. A proprietary protocol that is normally in use proved not be secure enough. All they eventually needed to do, was to send simple messages from a laptop to the car’s computer.
Bailey and Solnik will present their findings during the upcoming Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas in a briefing entitled “War Texting: Identifying and Interacting with Devices on the Telephone Network,” although they will skip the details regarding the attack, to allow manufacturers to fix vulnerable systems.
However, apparently not just car security technologies are defenseless against the “War Texting” hacking method, as cellular networks are also utilized by SCADA systems that monitor and control industrial infrastructure, or facility-based processes.
Isn’t it a little overdue to require manufacturers of systems like these to build-in security protocols to guarantee safety and security. I surely hope no one is counting on wireless providers to do it.
AT&T is buying T-Mobile for $39 billion
AT&T has announced a definitive agreement to buy Deutsche Telekom’s American T-Mobile subsidiary in a cash and stock deal worth about $39 billion, and giving the German carrier an 8 percent stake in AT&T…
T-Mobile and AT&T share similar GSM and UMTS/HSPA networks, and both are working to build new next generation networks using HSPA+ and LTE. However, obtaining the rights to radio spectrum and building out these networks is both expensive and complex.
AT&T’s chief executive Randall Stephenson said the deal “provides a fast, efficient and certain solution to the impending exhaustion of wireless spectrum in some markets, which limits both companies’ ability to meet the ongoing explosive demand for mobile broadband…”
T-Mobile adds 33.7 million subscribers to AT&T’s network of of about 95.5 million, creating a total of about 130 million users, and becoming the largest American carrier. The deal will also expand Apple’s iPhone to three of what were the top four US carriers, as Apple has already brought it to Verizon earlier this year.
RTFA for the details. Fascinating – and expanded choices for anyone who owns or intends to own a GSM mobile device. In our market in northern New Mexico, we had held off on buying any iPhones or 3G iPads because of the requirement of dealing with AT&T. Their service is mediocre here at best. T-Mobile has been our personal choice for cellular service for years.
OK – aside from the new availability of hardware and increased network access across the country, what will this mean for consumers? In the opinion of many, we’re more likely to be screwed by higher prices, narrower opportunities for software and app developers.
One of the best analysts in the world on the dynamic mobile market is Om Malik. Here’s a link to his analysis as the story broke. Not especially optimistic.
Apple kicks off New Year – new product, new market
No one ever quite realizes how much traffic is engendered by an announcement from Apple and Steve Jobs. I’ll be updating this right through my usual post time of noon MST.
Yes, it is called the iPad.
Click on the photo for Gizmodo’s first hands-on experience.
Potential tag team with Google and T-Mobile – UPDATED
It is almost fun wandering through the Web bumping into bloggers who want to be known as pundits. Or even analysts. Hilarious – excepting their incompetence and lack of understanding of how the business world generally functions – couldn’t be further from their guesses at the future, a twittery fear of any corporation larger than a corner ice cream stand.
That is why my initial post referenced Om Malik’s post. Which he ended with email messages to personal contacts at Google and HTC. I’m certain there will be for-real updates at his business site.
Today’s update is from Reuters and ZDNet. Not much of any punditry there, either:
Google Inc plans to sell its own cellphone direct to consumers as soon as next year, bypassing wireless operators in a rare strategic move.
Called the Nexus One and made by smartphone maker HTC, the phone will run on the search giant’s Android operating system — around which Motorola and other cellphone makers have built devices — and will be sold online, the WSJ cited persons familiar with the matter as saying.
Cellular service will have to be bought separately, it added.
Yes, most of the article was offering analysis derived from info reported in the Wall Street Journal – and so credited. So much for Rupert Murdoch’s plan for a paywall.
The “Google phone,” HTC’s Nexus One, was approved this morning by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission as model number PB99100.
The trio of filings confirm a few technical details, such as microSD expansion, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.
The report also raises new questions about the device’s potential carrier landing spot, with support for quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE with UMTS/HSUPA on 850/1700/1900 frequencies.
Translation: Hello T-Mobile, and perhaps AT&T, too.
UPDATE: Latest news from Reuters says the phone hits the stores in January with two versions: one to be sold with contract by T-Mobile and another to be sold unlocked.
