In light of Germany"s troubles with NSA surveillance and various protests from activists, Vodafone Germany has announced SIM card based encryption for data communication over its network and will soon expand the feature to voice communication as well.
A report from The Hacker News has detailed Vodafone"s plans for securing customers" data communication using a SIM card based solution which previously was possible using separate smart cards or tokens. The company has developed this solution in collaboration with its security partner Giesecke & Devrient (G&D).
The solution which will utilize a PIN and a digital signature will be used to encrypt the data at sender"s end and decrypt at the receiver"s ends using the SIM. Data such as emails, documents, VPN connections and other forms of data communication will be secured using it. Currently, the Secure SIM solution uses S/MIME encryption but the company expects to use PGP in the future as the system becomes mature.
Speaking about Secure SIM Data, Carsten Ahrens, Group Senior Vice President of Vodafone Germany"s Server Software and Services division, said that, "We created Vodafone Secure SIM Data as a simple, cost-efficient and above all secure value-added service based on the Vodafone SIM card for the telecommunications group"s corporate customers."
Vodafone expects to launch similar encryption solution for voice calls using a Secure Call app, which the company hopes to launch on all major smartphone platforms such as Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
Source: The Hacker News | Image via Wired