17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
To assess this spin we offer extracts of a 1998 GSM System Security Study:
http://jya.com/gsm061088.htm (44K + 3 images)
Looks like that is the 'two brown envelopes' doc from which Ross Anderson reconstructed the A5 algorithm as reprinted in Applied Cryptography. Racal Research writes that there were French, Swedish and British proposals. Ross indicated that the French one was chosen as A5, while Julian Assange says that two different "A5" algorithms are in use. What happened to the Swedish and the UK proposal? Do you also have Appendix A and Section 8 of the A5 analysis? They write that COMP128 was proposed 'by the German administration'. Does anyone know which role the BSI (then called ZfCh) played in the design of this algorithm?