can mobile broadband be hacked into??

fryup · 27-04-2011 5:21pm #1

well can it ???????

Amalgam · 27-04-2011 6:20pm

On the 3G wireless side, well.. yes it can, but you need expensive equipment and time.. in other words, unlikely to be an issue for you.

If you have worries, the interference is much more likely to be from another avenue of attack, namely, the internet connection itself, your computer has been infected and compromised in some way, or.. you have a wireless connection to a 3G router or wifi dongle that isn't secured properly. (WEP or no encryption at all..)

I'm getting deja-vu, have you asked this type of question before..?

fryup · 27-04-2011 6:25pm

^^^^^^^^

nope, i didn't ask that question before

William Powell · 27-04-2011 6:27pm

If you have to ask then the answer is maybe.

jor el · 28-04-2011 12:55am

What do you mean by "hacked into"? What exactly are you worried about?

fryup · 28-04-2011 9:01am

btw I'm talking about regular mobile bb with a usb dongle.

I just heard an item on the radio about people's wifi connection being hacked into and i'm just wondering can the same sort of thing happen with mobile bb?

jor el · 28-04-2011 9:23am

Completely different situations. It would be far cheaper to just buy broadband than try to connect to someone else over a 3G network. Even then, the modem doesn't serve any connections on the 3G wireless side, so hacking into it that way would be pointless, as they wouldn't be connected through your Internet connection.

A 3G modem is completely different to a Wifi router, and hacking the 3G network would be extremely difficult, expensive, and mostly pointless.

Stealing broadband by cracking the Wifi password is relatively simple, and can be done with minimal of hardware. Choosing a strong password (random characters, not whole words) and good encryption (WPA2) is essential for the Wifi network owner.

dub45 · 28-04-2011 5:08pm

There has also been stuff in the papers recently about setting up false wifi hot spots and stealing information that way.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/25/wifi-security-flaw-smartphones-risk

Amalgam · 30-04-2011 8:10pm

dub45, there's not much hacking going on in your link, to be honest, I would class that more as a 'social engineering\bait and switch' scam.

I had the following .pdf in a misc. folder, focusing on GSM, forgot to attach. Interesting to note that efforts involve FPGA's and GPU's being used to extract a key. FPGA's tend to pop up for a lot of the more interesting cryptography articles out there.

Not really feasible for fryup's neighbour, just yet..

See attached.

1519_26C3.Karsten.Nohl.GSM.pdf

can mobile broadband be hacked into??

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