[Cryptography] Bizarre behavior of a non-smart mobile phone

[Ray Dillinger]

On 05/14/2017 03:30 PM, mok-kong shen wrote:

> One has the option of storing the contact list either on the SIM card or
> on the device.
> Storing on the SIM card has the advantage that, if one migrates to a new
> device, there
> is no need of building up a new contact list.

Hm.  Okay, I wasn't aware of that.  Apologies to you and the list, if
I wrote something misleading.

> Sorry, I don't understand your logic. If the malice could even
> deactivate the SIM card
> as such, why couldn't he (in my view) just as simply manage do the
> things I described?
> After all, deactivating the SIM card means that the device will be no
> longer be operational,
> which wouldn't be a very favorable goal of the hacker.

Aaaaand, your friends getting content-free calls from your phone at
random intervals isn't a very favorable goal of the hacker either.

The only common thread between them is that they might be adopted as
goals by someone who has absolutely no goal whatsoever beyond malice
directed specifically and personally against you.  Someone who gets
absolutely no other benefit from it.

But, if someone wanted to deactivate the SIM, they'd have a bunch of
known, widely-available ways to do it, whereas the more complicated
behavior you describe would require an additional effort of researching
the phone's vulnerabilities, figuring out how to do it, and programming
some original code.

				Bear

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