Andre Yoskowitz
15 Nov 2012 17:01
Researchers at Virginia Tech seem to think so.
The university says anyone with a $650 radio jammer and some background knowledge can temporarily disable entire LTE networks for their area.
Apparently, LTE networks are much more susceptible than existing GSM or CDMA networks to said radio jamming attacks. As the researchers say: "The vulnerability stems from the fact that LTE depends on control instructions that make up less than one percent of the overall signal."
The frequencies that the control set operate are publicly available, you just have to look for them.
VTech's director of wireless research Jeff Reed says hackers could also add an "inexpensive power amplifier" to the jammer they could take down LTE networks for miles. This would be an extremely dire situation for carriers who are looking to eventually move to LTE-only networks, not backed by current 3G.