Wireless Cellular Security

Arvind, an old colleague recently spoke in ACM, Bangalore on the topic of Security. Here is his presentation:

Securing Wireless Cellular Systems

View more documents from ACMBangalore.

There are lots of interesting Questions and Answers. One interesting one is:

Does number portability mean that data within an AuC is compromised?

Not really. Number portability does not mean sensitive data from old AuC are transferred to the new AuC. The new operator will issue a new USIM which will have a new IMSI. Number portability only means that MSISDN is kept the same for others to call the mobile. The translation between MSISDN and IMSI is done at a national level register. Such a translation will identify the Home PLMN and the HLR that’s needs to be contacted for an incoming call.
That’s the theory and that’s how it should be done. It will be interesting to know how operators in India do this.

You can read all Q&A's here.

I wrote a tutorial on UMTS security many years back. Its available here.