The SIM Advantage

With Mideye, remote end-users are identified with a secret password in combination with a one-time password that is sent to the mobile phone. In this way, the mobile phone, or rather the SIM card, is used as a security token. The end-user must know the password and be in possession of the SIM card in order to access the protected service.

The SIM card has several advantages as a security token:

• There are currently (February 2006) more than 1.6 billion GSM / 3GSM subscribers in the world, a number that is increasing at a rate of more than 15 million per month. GSM is the first digital standard to adopt SIM technology for subscriber identification, and other digital standards as well as 3rd generation mobile technologies follow the same path. No other authentication device, neither hardware nor software, comes close to the footprint of SIM cards. For more information about GSM statistics and GSM coverage, see http://www.gsmworld.com.
• The SIM card is a reliable and convenient security token. The SIM does not require any extra effort to carry, since it is already included in the mobile phone. The mobile phone is personal, frequently used and perceived as a valuable item by the end-user. In case it is lost or stolen, the end-user is likely to notice this quickly. The SIM can be immediately blocked through the operator's 24-hour service. In case an attacker manages to break the first level of Mideye protection (user name and password), the end-user is notified by receiving non-requested one-time passwords on the phone.
• The SIM card is based on smart card techology, and enables further migration paths to SAT, WIM/SWIM and WPKI technology.