Criminals have a chance to remotely access your mobile phone. This has been revealed by a German security researcher who has found that nearly one quarter of mobile phones in use today are in danger of being hacked by hackers around the world. Most of the times, it is our own fault when we leak our password of our bank account and it is hacked or accessed by unscrupulous elements. But in this case, nearly 750 mobile phone users around the world are at the risk of losing their identity or to give control of their devices to hackers around the world.
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Karsten Nohl, a German researcher who has been working on the security of SIM cards for the last two years has found a security flaw in some types of SIM cards of mobile phones. These SIM cards cover nearly 25% of the total SIM cards used by mobile phone holders around the world. According to a conservative estimate, this flaw could affect nearly 750 million mobile users around the world. The encryption technique that is being used in nearly half of the total SIM cards in use today remains the same old 1970’s DES encryption or Data Encryption Standard. Only mobiles making use of Triple DES are immune to this flaw. Karsten and his team of researchers closely examined around 1000 SIM cards and came to a conclusion that there is a hole or flaw in this old encryption that can be potentially used by hackers to gain control of mobile phones on a global basis. This flaw allows the hacker to get hold of a 56 digit key that is used in mobile phones to gain access and make modifications.
According to a World Bank report, three fourths of the world population has today access to mobile phones. This means that out of the present 8 billion, nearly 6 billion people are making use of mobile services. This number was a mere 1 billion at the start of the century. Hackers can make use of a simple text message to send virus to mobile phones without adequate protection. Hackers can even gain remote control of these phones to listen to voice calls and make or receive payments on behalf of the user impersonating him.
Reacting to the news, a spokesperson of the GSM association in London has sought to downplay the dangers. Claire
Cranton said, ‘We have been able to consider the implications and provide guidance to those network operators and SIM vendors that may be impacted.’
Karstan Nohl has suggested phasing out of the SIM cards that still make use of the old and obsolete encryption technology and improving the security of the new SIM cards that are being made for mobile phones. According to Nohl, it is difficult to find out the mobile phones that stand exposed to this risk of hacking because of the security flaw. But he has estimated that nearly three quarters of a billion SIM cards around the world could be affected by this loophole.
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