Washington: A recent study by cyber researchers has revealed that phones SIMs using old encryption technology, DES, make the devices vulnerable to attacks as they could be copied and controlled.
According to the Sky News, German firm Security Research Labs discovered the mobile bug in 500 million mobile phones as the DES encryption is used in one out of eight devices around the world.
The researchers said that the bug allows hackers to remotely gain control of and also clone certain mobile SIM cards.
Chief scientist who led the research team, Karsten Nohl, said that hacking only works on SIMs that use an old encryption technology known as DES and explained that once a hacker copies a SIM, it can be used to make calls and send text messages impersonating the owner of the phone.
Nohl further said that the hacker can do anything the normal phone users can do adding that if one has a MasterCard number or PayPal data on the phone, the hacker can get it.
The report added Nohl saying that mobile users in Africa could be among the most at risk because banking is widely done through mobile payment systems with credentials stored on SIMs.
ANI
