The SIM Card as an Enabler for Security, Privacy, and Trust in Mobile Services

The paper describes an architecture for mobile services where the SIM card is integrated for providing basic services related to security, privacy, and trust. The presented work is part of a cooperative research initiative aiming at an open architecture for mobile services. Now-a-days, the security of mobile networks is mainly established through the SIM card. It provides an identity and can be used for authentication. Moreover, the SIM includes secure tamper-proof storage capabilities as well as cryptographic modules required for basic functions like signing, and ciphering. Consequently, in the authors' architecture for mobile services, the SIM has also the role of a security token providing basic security related services.