We’ve heard and had it all, haven’t we? We heard of malware problems from one major company to the National Security Advisory spying on our devices. We thought the SIM card was safe, right? Well…
After years of research led by German cryptographer Karsten Nohl, software flaws have been found that can hit millions of SIM cards and can open up more cans of fraud and surveillance. He’ll?address this at a conference in a week or?two. ?Nohl and his team tested about 1,000 mobile phones of all types.?They found vulnerabilities caused by old security standards and bad configuration codes. These can let hackers infect the cards and?steal all?kinds of information, leading to fraud and theft. But thinking about?what we know?now, they don’t have to be hackers. I can see gov’t agencies using this to their advantage.
In this research, Nohl found only 25% of the phones?and SIM cards he tested can be hacked, and an eighth of the?cards could be really venerable. But that’s a half?billion mobile devices. Their biggest concern is Africa, where SIM card payments are so widespread,?and where?technology fraud is perhaps the most rampant. According to Nohl, companies are desperate to fight?hacking and fraud,?no matter where it lies.
So what’s to make of this? First of all, don’t freak out!?This is not fear mongering. I’m glad I came across this report because knowledge is power. The majority of the SIM cards?are okay. And now we know there is a threat, something can?be done. It appears cell phone companies are already getting the memo. If not, we can?do what we can to raise awareness on these issues. How concerned should we be about Nohl’s findings?