‘GEA-1 encryption for GPRS was deliberately vulnerable to attacks’ – Tablets and phones – News

Yes, quite logical. The 40-bit restriction was a result of US government regulations, and many other governments had similar regulations. Encryption was, before the internet, a weapon, and weapons are heavily restricted before you can just sell them abroad.

The same problem is also in SSL, Windows, DES key size choice, and so on. The source code of PGP has literally been smuggled into Europe to enable encryption for the masses.

A good implementation of GPRS should never be used internationally, then heads would roll in large tech companies.

The worst part is that more and more countries want to go back to the old, backward system with crypto backdoors and restrictions that make it nice and easy for the police. Our own Grapperhaus once in a while screams some bullshit about pedos who use encryption to help terrorists launder money or something, just to substantiate the mindset “encryption is bad”, but then claims to be the biggest advocate of privacy when questioned about it. In other countries, these crazy people have actually been listened to.

Let’s learn a lesson from the outrage over this news and apply it to avoid a recurrence.

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