What Information Can Be Pulled Off A Mobile Device SIM Card?

I recently taught a mobile forensics course and asked my students to identify what kind of information that can be retrieved from a mobile device SIM card.  Here’s a list of some of the retrievable information students listed:

 Integrated Circuit Card Identifier (ICCID) – this is the number that is printed on the SIM card itself.  It is nineteen or twenty digits long.

International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) – this is the number that identifies a SIM card user on a GSM network.  It is stored in the EF(IMSI).  It is a fifteen-digit number.  Three components that make up the IMSI are:

• Mobile Country Code (MCC) – the first three digits identify the country.
• Mobile Network Code (MNC) – the next two digits identifies the cell provider mobile unit in a GSM network.
• Mobile Subscriber Identity Number (MSIN) – the next nine digits identifies the mobile unit in a GSM network.

Service Provider Name (SPN) – the mobile provider’s name.  This can be found from the ICCID.

Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number (MSISDN) – basically, the SIM card’s telephone number.  This number can vary from fifteen to sixteen digits long.  The MSISDN is stored in EF(MSISDN).  It is made up of three components:

• Country Code (CC) – up to three digits
• National Destination Code (NDC) – two or three digits
• Subscriber Number (SN) – up to a max. of ten digits

Abbreviated Dialing Numbers (AND) – These numbers are shortcuts on the phone of the most frequently dialed phone numbers.  These are generated by the subscriber.  They are stored in the EF(AND) file.

Last Number Dialed (LND) – This is a listing of the most recent calls and can be found in the EF(LND).

Short Message Service (SMS) – Short messages sent to other phones with a maximum length of either 160 or 70 characters.  These messages can be found in the EF(SMS) file.  These messages show not only the message but also the time the message was sent, the sender and receiver’s phone number, etc.

Language Preference (LP) – the preferred language of the subscriber.

Card Holder Verification (CHV1 and CHV2) – allows access to files after the user’s verification of PIN 1(CHV1) or PIN 2(CHV2).

Ciphering Key (Kc) – a 64-bit ciphering key used for encryption and decryption of data on an over-the-air channel.  It is generated by the Mobile Station from a random challenge by the GSM network.

Fixed Dialing Numbers (FDN) – phone numbers added to a list and the SIM restricts outgoing calls only to those numbers listed.

Location Area Identity (LAI) – The LAI will be stored on the SIM card so that a phone knows what location it is in and able to receive service.  If a phone changes areas, then the new LAI is stored in the SIM.  This is great for investigators to be able to read a list of where the SIM card has been geographically.

Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) – the SIM is assigned a TMSI by the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) whenever a phone is in the vicinity of a new MSC.  Information about the phone is stored in the Visitor Location Register (VLR) and the phone is given a TMSI which allows the subscriber to be uniquely identified.

Service Dialing Numbers (SDN) – Numbers that are installed by the service provider which cannot be changed or deleted by the user.  The SDNs are usually hidden.

Thanks to my Mobile Forensics class students!

Image source: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-parts-of-a-SIM-card#

University of Florida Shutting Down Computer Science Department

I honestly thought this was a joke when I first read it. The University of Florida - that's the big one in Gainesville, where Tim Tebow played football for the Gators - has decided to shut down it's computer science department. The University has decided to eliminate all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cut the graduate and research programs entirely, and move what is left into other departments.

This will allow the University to save about $1.4 million per year. At the same time, the University is increasing the athletic budget by $2 million to $97. million. Am I blaming athletics - no. I love football! But it does look like there is more emphasis on athletics at the University of Florida after a move like this.

Where's it coming from?  It's a response to the Florida State Legislators who have cut the University budget by 30% over the next 6 years. You can read the University response in a Forbes post.

There's more.... a couple of days ago Florida governor Rick Scott approved the creation Florida Polytechnic University, a new public university that will be located in the Tampa area. The new University will involve the phasing out of the University of Southern Florida Polytechnic campus also located in Lakeland.  

Facebook Will Need Its Own Operating System

Gabby came home today for a little while and she had her Chromebook with her. If you haven't seen one yet - it's a pretty cool little notebook running Google's Chrome operating system. It boots up in about three seconds and has a battery that lasts over 8 hours. Everything is stored in the cloud so everything is accessible with a web connection. Pretty nice for a first generation device.

It got me thinking - Facebook does not have a mobile operating system (or any operating system for that matter). Apple does, Microsoft does and Google now has more than one. Poking around on the web I found an interesting report from ABI Research titled Mobile Social Networking. Here's some quotes from that report:

The number of people accessing social networks from mobile phones will exceed 550 million in 2011, and that figure will more than triple to over 1.7 billion by the end of 2016. 

For Facebook, the growing importance of mobile is both an opportunity and a serious strategic challenge. On one hand, mobile allows the world’s leading social network to engage with millions of new consumers, but on the other hand its ability to make money from mobile users remains untested. 

Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen is also quoted in the report saying, "A huge problem for Facebook is that while on the web it is a platform, on mobile it’s just another application. To strengthen its hand in the short term we expect Facebook to aggressively take advantage of HTML5, but in the longer term it should absolutely become a mobile operating system of its own."

Facebook is lagging. Google+ is tied in very tightly with Android and Chrome already. Twitter is going to be built into Apple's iOS 5. Practice director Dan Shey is also quoted saying, “The interesting aspect in Apple’s and Twitter’s partnership is how it can provide iPhone users with a verifiable social identity for websites and apps. That gives developers a lot of scope to innovate in areas such as authentication, personalization and advertising. It’s a hint of things to come.”

WikiLeaks Update with Sam Bowne

Last week at the Convergence Technology Center's Winter Retreat at Collin College in Frisco, Texas Sam Bowne from City College of San Francisco gave a brief description and update on the WikiLeaks "situation" thus far. Here's Sam's excellent 16 minute and 51 second presentation.

Enjoy!

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This video is also available as a podcast. If you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Maximizing Your Twitter Experience - 10 Quick Tips Podcast

Last Thursday (12/2/10) evening , Mike Q and I recorded a podcast titlted Maximizing Your Twitter Experience - 10 Quick Tips. We also discuss some recent technology updates including:

• The FCC and net neutrality
• The iPad and Macbook Air
• The Rockmelt Browser that integrates social media into your browser.
• Tim Wu's book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
• The London School of Business and Finance Global M.B.A. - they are offering an MBA through a Facebook application

You can listen to the 36.5 minute podcast in your browser by clicking the play button below:

If you have iTunes installed you can listen to and subscribe to our podcasts by clicking here.

Changing Times: Computers, Communications and Coca-Cola

I've been a developer, programmer, consultant, instructor, and consumer of personal computers and applications since the early days of CPM (pre-DOS). My early work started around January 1982 with the IBM PC on the connectivity and coding side, developing communications and custom business applications. Device-to-device communications was slow, commonly running at around 115 Kbps. I used to say I could make any computing device talk to any other computing device - just give me some cable, connectors, a few basic tools, an RS-232 Protocol Analyzer, breakout box, some paper clips to use as jumpers for cable configuration, and lots of Coca-Cola!

Times have changed - when I started almost 30 years ago, technicians typically drove commercial style vans full of tools and parts. Today a friend has a computer technology business where the technicians drive Mini Coopers. He's got one SUV to lug around bigger stuff but it does not see much road time. Times have really changed.

My current interest and technical focus is on connectivity (copper, optical and wireless), converged network (voice, video and data) services, end device hardware, operating systems and applications (that someone else has written!). Basically TCP/IP, Ethernet and everything involved in moving information securely, dependably and reliably from one device to another.

I still do take a thing or two apart these days though. Most recently I changed an iPod battery using a blow drier (to melt the glue holding device together) and guitar pick (get the thinnest picks you can find). Taking apart an iPad (why would anyone want to?) is not much different - here's a video from DirectFix.com showing how.

The days of vans full of technician tools, desktop type computers and field swappable components are either gone or rapidly going away. Some things do stay the same though - I'm still hooked on the Coca-Cola.

Ray Ozzie - Dawn of a New Day

Back on June 15, 2006, Ray Ozzie took over the role of Microsoft Chief Software Architect from Bill Gates. In that role Ozzie has been responsible for oversight of the company’s overall technical strategy and product architecture pretty much behind the scenes, letting Steve Balmer handle much of the public face of the company. Ray's been an innovator in the computing industry for the past 35 years or so and probably best know for his role in the development of Lotus Notes.

He's in the process of transitioning out of Microsoft over the next few months and yesterday published a pretty significant memo to his Executive Staff and direct reports at Microsoft on his blog at ozzie.net. He titled the memo Dawn of a New Day. It's a must read - I bet I've read it at least 20 times over the course of today. I'll be reading it lots more. My favorite piece:

.... the power and responsibility to truly effect transformation exists in no small part at the edge. Within those who, led or inspired, feel personally and collectively motivated to make; to act; to do.

We get down on ourselves, the economy, politics, the day-to-day grind that just seems to come at us from all directions. Love Microsoft, hate Microsoft - it doesn't matter - give Ray's post a read - you'll end up reading it over and over again. You can find it linked here.

Gender Issues: Education, Technology, Entrepreneurship & Silicon Valley

As the father of two young women interested in technology, I found a New York Times piece published on April 17, 2010 and titled Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley pretty interesting. The piece was written by Clair Cain Miller and focuses on gender issues and gaps in technology and entrepreneurship. Here’s some highlights:

• Research indicates that investing in women as tech entrepreneurs is good for the bottom line. Venture-backed start-ups run by women use, on average, 40 percent less capital than start-ups run by men and are increasingly involved in successful initial public offerings of stock, according to a recent white paper by Cindy Padnos, a venture capitalist who compiled data from 100 studies on gender and tech entrepreneurship.
• Women own 40 percent of the private businesses in the United States, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research. But they create only 8 percent of the venture-backed tech start-ups, according to Astia, a nonprofit group that advises female entrepreneurs.
• Just 1 percent of girls taking the SAT in 2009 said they wanted to major in computer or information sciences, compared with 5 percent of boys, according to the College Board.
• Women now outnumber men at elite colleges, law schools, medical schools and in the overall work force. Yet a stark imbalance of the sexes persists in the high-tech world, where change typically happens at breakneck speed.
• Only 18 percent of college students graduating with computer science degrees in 2008 were women, down from 37 percent in 1985, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
• In a study of 493 undergraduate engineering majors’ intentions to continue with their major, men tended to stick with their studies as long as they completed the coursework, while women did so only if they earned high grades.
• According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, 56 percent of women with technical jobs leave their work midway through their careers, double the turnover rate for men. Twenty percent of them leave the work force entirely, and an additional 31 percent take nontechnical jobs — suggesting that child-rearing isn’t necessarily the primary reason women move on.

There's lots more. The piece, along with the links/references are excellent and a recommended read.