What possible harm could a non-optional mini computer do to your phone?
Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
151–160 of 191 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#152Regulations.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can't leak your location if there is no GPS module in your phone While not as precise, you can definitively leak your location by scanning for the surrounding cell towers, especially in a city, which usually have hundreds or thousands of them (Manhattan alone has eleven, for example). I used to run a Python script on my Nokia phone that logged the tower ID, and I could reliable tell when I got to work, home, etc.…
> especially in a city, which usually have hundreds or thousands of them (Manhattan alone has eleven, for example) That's really quite a way from "hundreds or thousands".
Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I'm just talking about the main towers, for each of those there are many smaller ones. Check out http://opencellid.org/ it's amazing, actually.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#154Can someone explain the appeal of so-called "slim SIMs"? As I understand it, this allows you to load two accounts on a single device? And carriers don't like this aspect---or is it a security concern on their part?
It amuses me that these slim-SIMs, and SIM cards in general, are one of the few pieces of technology that are utterly opaque to the user and yet are so widespread.
Edit: For example, I recently upgraded to an iPhone 7, at the Apple store. This required a new SIM card, but the salesperson was very careful to return the old SIM card to me. Why? What am I supposed to do with this old SIM card?
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#155The SIM card is a smart card, i.e. a secure piece of hardware, that protects the telephone network from the subscriber - most importantly, it ensures that the network has someone to bill. In most western countries, SIMs do little else; however, they are full application platforms, allowing stuff like Kenya's mobile payment network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa . For what it's worth, you really don't want to ha…
In Estonia, you can use your SIM to create a government recognizeed digital signature. [1] Thus, you not only identify yourself to the mobile operator, but you can also identify yourself to banks, government services, and more. [1] https://e-estonia.com/component/mobile-id/
Same in Lithuania. Have been using mobile signatyre as it is called for yeats, very convenient.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#156The SIM card is a smart card, i.e. a secure piece of hardware, that protects the telephone network from the subscriber - most importantly, it ensures that the network has someone to bill. In most western countries, SIMs do little else; however, they are full application platforms, allowing stuff like Kenya's mobile payment network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa . For what it's worth, you really don't want to ha…
I'd love to study a piece of software like M-Pesa.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
/me puts on tinfoil hat the sim card has one important difference. It lives in a device that provides it with 24/7 battery and radio access. That is really worrisome when you think about. A tiny computer running applications you have no idea/access. powered 24/7. Always with you. With access to battery, network, mic, etc. And the other side of the network that could monitor it's traffic for malicious actions is owned…
It's no different than having no SIM, if your phone wants to spy on you, it doesn't need a SIM card. It's the phone that transceives the signals, and it can do so without a SIM card. SIM card authenticates you to the network, but you control the device and the network around the device, there's no need for a SIM card.
Yes, but now your Telco can also do those things.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#158The SIM card is a smart card, i.e. a secure piece of hardware, that protects the telephone network from the subscriber - most importantly, it ensures that the network has someone to bill. In most western countries, SIMs do little else; however, they are full application platforms, allowing stuff like Kenya's mobile payment network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa . For what it's worth, you really don't want to ha…
The SIM card is a smart card If you have a credit/debit card with a chip, look at the arrangement of the contacts and compare to a SIM card. It's essentially the same standard (ISO 7816) at the lower layers, but with different application-layer protocols on top. Also, as a matter of being the only device in posession of the subscriber but arguably owned by the telco, I'd definitely prefer it to be a removable piece w…
Yes but if we have credit cards which can be charged simply by copying a few numbers that can be read visually off the card, then why do we need SIMs really?
In other words, SIMs seem disproportionally secure w.r.t. credit cards.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#159A form of this has existed for a while but never caught on for fairly understandable reasons. Quite a few years ago (2005?) a family member purchased a Samsung-branded dumbphone on a contract. (Monochrome LCD (something like 128x64?), polyphonic ringtones, 3 fixed games, a (really slow, GSM data) WAP browser; that was it. Model SGH-something, I vaguely recall.) It had no SIM card slot. It was locked to the network (O…
It was probably just a CDMA phone - they don't have SIM cards are were actually quite common a while ago.
Re: Ask HN: Why are SIM cards still a thing?
#160A form of this has existed for a while but never caught on for fairly understandable reasons. Quite a few years ago (2005?) a family member purchased a Samsung-branded dumbphone on a contract. (Monochrome LCD (something like 128x64?), polyphonic ringtones, 3 fixed games, a (really slow, GSM data) WAP browser; that was it. Model SGH-something, I vaguely recall.) It had no SIM card slot. It was locked to the network (O…
It was probably just a CDMA phone - they don't have SIM cards are were actually quite common a while ago.
Aha! That's what it was, you're right.