YNOT – A German man has claimed that he has cracked the encryption technology used to protect most of the world’s cell phone calls from snooping. Karsten Nohl said he was simply trying to expose the weaknesses in cell phone security methods when he posted the crack of the algorithm G.S.M, which was published in 1988 and provides security for about 80% of the world’s cell phone calls.“This shows that existing G.S.M. security is inadequate,” Mr. Nohl told a group of hackers at a conference in Berlin. “We are trying to push operators to adopt better security measures for mobile phone calls.”

It’s unclear what legal troubles might wait for Nohl, since his work could be considered illegal in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

“This isn’t something that we take lightly at all,” said a spokeswoman for The G.S.M. Association, makers of the GSMA encryption standard.

According to Nohl, anyone with a few thousand dollars worth of equipment could use the work he has published to listen in on potentially billions of cell phone calls each day.