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Researcher: SIM cards vulnerable to hacking

2013-07-23 09:56 by
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A recent study from Security Research Labs in Berlin has revealed that some phones' SIM cards are susceptible to attack. After three years of research, German cryptographer Karsten Nohl claims to have finally found encryption and software flaws that could affect millions of SIM cards, and open up another route on mobile phones for surveillance and fraud.

Nohl and his team tested close to 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities, exploited by simply sending a hidden SMS. The two-part flaw, based on an old security standard and badly configured code, could allow hackers to remotely infect a SIM with a virus that sends premium text messages (draining a mobile phone bill), surreptitiously re- direct and record calls, and — with the right combination of bugs — carry out payment system fraud.

Just under a quarter of these cards were found to be susceptible to attack and Nohl added this figure could increase from country to country because the distribution of cards varies. The flaw affects cards that use an older form of encryption software based on the Digital Encryption Standard (DES).

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