Mobile SIM cards are small pieces found in smartphones that enable operators to identity and authenticate a subscriber as they use a particular network.  These SIM cards are found in all smartphones regardless of the brand or the technology.  Often people store information such as banking information and credit card numbers on their smartphone in the SIM.  Access to this information is a gold mine to hackers and identity thieves.  Unfortunately, according Berlin’s Security Research Labs, identity thieves are now able to hack into SIM cards using older technology and capture information from these defective SIM cards which is resulting in identity theft.  According to Security Research Labs more than 500 million smartphones world wide still use the vulnerable older SIM cards.

TIPS

The best thing you can do is to contact your smartphone provider to find out if your phone still uses the older, vulnerable SIM cards and if it does, replace it with a new phone or a new SIMS.  Although widespread exploitation of this vulnerability has not occurred yet in the United States, it is still a good idea to be ahead of the curve and protect the privacy of your data as soon as possible.