Silently tapping into a private cell phone conversation is no longer a high-tech trick reserved for spies and the FBI. Thanks to the work of two young cyber-security researchers, cellular snooping may be soon be affordable enough for your next-door neighbor.

In a presentation Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference, David Hulton and Steve Muller demonstrated a new technique for cracking the encryption used to prevent eavesdropping on GSM cellular signals. Combined with a radio receiver, the pair say their technique allows an eavesdropper to record a conversation on these networks from miles away and decode it in about half an hour with just $1,000 in computer storage and processing equipment.

At Forbes.

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