A committee of central security agencies and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has been constituted to examine the issue of imported SIM cards, especially in view of their vulnerability to embedded software which can track and monitor calls of the users, according to news reports.
Security agencies say that this vulnerability can be eliminated by the personalisation of SIM cards by operators, but the companies are outsourcing this process to manufacturing facilities abroad and are providing those companies with inscription keys which in turn are enhancing the susceptibility.
The DoT and central security agencies have thus been given the task to carry out a joint technical assessment of existing SIM cards which have been imported in view of the security threat posed by them and present their report to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The DOT has also been asked to instruct operators to upgrade their software in a way to identify duplicate and fake SIM cards. Operators may also be asked to bear the replacement cost of all such SIM cards, it is believed.
