Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 10775
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2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
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2003/10/24-26 [Consumer/CellPhone] UID:10775 Activity:low
10/24   Exactly how secure is CDMA? I'm asking because I do a lot of banking,
        stock trade, etc via my cell phone and I'm wondering if land line
        is more secure. I remember a while ago my friend showed me his
        scanner which scanned in the 800-900Mhz and we heard a LOT of really
        good stuff.
        \_ Analog cells also use 800MHz.  That's what you heard.  I'm not sure
           CDMA is truly secure, but it is scrambled enough to stymie Joe Shmoe
           with a scanner.
        \_ I think you need hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment
           to descramble the signal, and you also have to be talking on your
           cell phone near the thief with the equipment for many days (due to
           the long code with a 42 day cycle time) before he can descramble
           it unless he got really lucky.  Then he still have to deal with the
           encryptions.
           cell phone near the thief with the equipment for many days
        \_ Just wear your tinfoil hat.
        \_ I don't think the CDMA standard has any real encryption built in.
           The security you get from scrambling and spread spectrum parts
           of CDMA are minimal.  Specifically, you can lock in on a given
           pseudo-noise sequence in time which is linear in the block
           length.  In summary, it's not that secure if someone wants to
           to put the effort in to crack it and you could probably do it
           with less than $30K of equipment.
           \_ and if you have that level of knowledge and that much equipment
              is it worth your time and risk to engage in petty fraud?
              i doubt it.
              \_ Sure it is.  That's what criminal .orgs like the mob do.  They
                 don't rake in millions on a few big scores.  They mostly
                 engage in lots of little petty crimes despite what hollywood
                 would have you think.  Reality is a lot more boring than TV.
                 \_ You're correct, but this is mainly true for payment-
           before he can descramble it unless he got really lucky.  Then he
           still have to deal with the encryptions.
        \_ Just wear your tinfoil hat.
                 would have you think.  Reality is a lot more boring than TV.
                    related stuff (credit cards billing, etc.)  -John
2025/07/08 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
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