Israelis Claim to Have Cracked Phone Code

Israeli scientists claim to have cracked the code protecting certain digital cellular phone calls, enabling corporate spies and other eavesdroppers to listen in on conversations. Researchers Adi Shamir and Alex Biryukov of the Weizmann Institute near Tel Aviv will publish a paper soon detailing how they broke the code, Shamir said. Their code-breaking program works on calls made using the world’s most popular cell-phone standard, global system for mobile communications, or GSM. As wireless phones have proliferated, concern about the security of calls has increased. GSM technology is prevalent in Europe, where it is used by Vodafone AirTouch, the world’s largest wireless company. U.S. companies using GSM include VoiceStream Wireless Corp., Omnipoint Corp. and Aerial Communications Inc.