We all thought the SIM card was un-hackable, but think again. German cryptographer Karsten Nohl is going to present some interesting findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 31. He found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards. His team tested approximately 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities and found that hackers can remotely infect a SIM with a virus that sends premium text messages. That’s not all, they can redirect or record calls and possibly commit payment system fraud. "Give me any phone number and there is some chance I will, a few minutes later, be able to remotely control this SIM card and even make a copy of it," Nohl says.
Now it doesn’t look like this affects all SIM cards. It all comes down to the encryption standards chosen by different countries. Noel said, "Different shipments of SIM cards either have [the bug] or not, it's very random." Noel did find about 25% of the cards he tested to be hackable, but figures about an eighth of the world’s SIM cards to be vulnerable. That’s about a half a billion mobile devices.
Noel also feels that cyber criminals probably didn’t know about the bug until now so the carriers have a head start on implementing a fix. That head start could be about six months. Two major carriers are already working on it and plan to share their findings with the GSMA. You can expect that all the carriers will work together for a fix since this can affect so many people.
source: Forbes
Come comment on this article: SIM cards are now hackable and could affect approximately 500 million phones
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