A researcher from SR Labs may have discovered a hole in the encryption of some SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards that could leave as many as 750 million cell phones susceptible to hackers. The hole in these cards would work like something similar to identity theft, due to the amount of personal information that is stored on these cards through the smartphone. The researcher, Karsten Nohl, discovered this SIM card hack early last week.
SIM cards are used to allow customers to connect with their wireless carrier and through these cards, hackers are able to access a customer’s account information. Not only can they access your sign-up information, they can access your contact list, text messages, and your network identification number. Once that is obtained, the customer is completely vulnerable to a rash of misdeeds by the hacker: they can modify the account, alter the voicemail message or messages, have phone calls forwarded, clone the customer’s phone on to another phone, steal payment details from NFC (Near Field Communication) transactions, send text messages as the customer, and various other nefarious acts.
Fortunately for users in the United States who use AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint (News - Alert), they have very little to worry about with this dilemma. The “Big Four” in the United States do not use the same type of SIM card that the SR Labs researcher discovered the problem on. The cards that are susceptible to an attack are an older model of SIM card that can be found in numerous other countries, but the United States has used a much newer style of SIM card, such as AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and Triple DES (Data Encryption Standard) since 1997. Many of the smaller companies, like Go, Boost, Virgin, and Metro PCS, use the “Big Four’s” towers to operate, and they, too, will be safe from this possible version of hacking.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson