SIM sleuth finds security flaw that may affect 750M phones
Monday, July 22, 2013 - 05:00
in Mathematics & Economics
Yet another path to smartphone break-ins and fraud? Trouble-seeking cryptographer and security researcher Karsten Nohl, the managing director of Security Research Labs, based in Berlin, Germany, has revealed that some mobile SIM cards can be compromised as they carry encryption and software flaws. How massive is the potential damage? We are talking about a vulnerability that could affect 750 million phones. Nohl's company has an ominous front page with a note showing handwriting, "Forever yours, Sim." The elegant note was below a headline, "SIM cards are prone to remote hacking." Nohl can back that up. He and his team tested close to 1,000 SIM cards for vulnerabilities, exploited by sending a hidden SMS.