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Flaw in old mobile phone encryption code could be used for snooping

By Matthew Sparkes

17 June 2021

Woman holding a phone

It’s possible that some older phones may be vulnerable to a data encryption flaw

Getty Images/Tetra images RF

An algorithm from the 1990s used to encrypt mobile phone data was deliberately weakened to allow eavesdropping, claims a team of cryptanalysts. It is possible the flaw could still allow access to some phones in use today.

“It’s a nice weakness, from a technical point of view. But it’s still not good to build it. Probably many people were involved,” says Christof Beierle at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, part of the team …

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