SIM cards can now be used as an ID

Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) are developing application to integrate electronic identification data into an mobile phone SIM card so as to use the phone as a means of personal identifications The prototype was recently presented at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, allows secure identification of the user by his eID data stored in the SIM card.
“The SIMs are like small computers that we carry in our mobile devices allowing us to store information and execute applications, with the advantage of providing a high level security,” explained Celeste Campo, the researcher on the project.


HOW IT WORKS


The SIM functions in a relatively simple way: the system obtains the personal information and allows identification and authorisation of the eID stored in the SIM card inserted in the terminal.
“These data interact with services offered by the company Secuware and allow us to access the Web services through authentication with the eID,” explained Campo.
The necessary requisites for use of this system are to have an Electronic ID, a PC with a reader for the same purpose, and an Internet connection.
To be installed, the user merely has to indicate his/her telephone number and extract the eID data through a Web site which verifies its validity with the Internet provider.
Following that, a confirmation SMS is sent to the terminal and the information is saved on an SIM card in secure files.
In addition, this information is only accessible for applications with a certificate, which will prevent access by non-authorised third parties.

FUTURE IMPLEMENTATION

This system will serve to authenticate in a secure way access to any Web page, especially those of bank services, and public administrations.
At the moment, the majority of applications which interact with the SIM card are developed in Java ME, code that is not supported by Android and iPhone OS.
For the general utilisation of this system the researchers have to develop an application that can be ported to different mobile devices.
The idea presented is that working in a SIM card would be more autonomous, and as a result, independent of the mobile phone.