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Monday, March 23, 2009

What Does a SIM Card Hold?

As a Cellular Forensics Examiner, I have examined a lot of SIM Cards. Briefly I want to give you some basic information on a SIM Card to help you:

1. A SIM Card is used on GSM networks (like T-Mobile and AT&T here in the USA. Verizon will use one for their "World Phone" since that phone is made for going into other portions of the world where the GSM network is used). So why is that helpful? Well, a SIM Card holds information as you will see in Tip #2. As a P.I., Police Officer or an Attorney presented with a suspect phone, if you know what network the phone uses, right off the bat you will know what types of memory are on the phone and where the information can be stored.

2. A SIM Card holds valuable information about the subscriber besides his/her phone number, ie:
  • Text Messages
  • Phone Contacts
  • Last number called with time/date
  • And More!
NOTE: A SIM Card does NOT hold Pics or Video-PERIOD

3. A SIM Card should be handled carefully. A simple carpet spark can ERASE all the data.

4. SIM Cards have different memory values. As technology increases, so does the memory space in a card. At one time I heard of a German company that was working on a SIM Card that could carry 16 different phone lines on it. Imagine...16 lines??!!!

5. Some phones (available overseas) can have more than one SIM Card in them. Right now I know of a company that sells them for about $100 bucks. This enables the user to have two separate phone numbers on their phone.

These are just a few tips to better help you in an investigation. If I can be of further assistance, just holler at me at: tom@cellularforensics.com

Later!

12 comments:

  1. Can a sim card hold data like my house address, my doctors name, other important personal details?

    ReplyDelete
  2. how do police look at my phone to see all the pictures ive ever saved? i have an at&t phone

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have found here much useful information for myself. Many thanks to the editors for the info.

    Best Calling Card

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can you provide a size in terms I understand? Like 1.2meg or 2500K What is available? My stick drive holds 128meg. How does a SIM compare to that?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So contacts and texts are held in the sim, where do the pictures go in a Pantech flip phone with extended memory

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi, thanks for a great website.

    If a SIM card is removed from a phone and replaced by a new one, will any records from the first one remain on the phone?

    ReplyDelete

  7. hey nice post



    http://www.videocontelecom.com/prepaid-services.php

    ReplyDelete
  8. Does my sim card contain stuffs like default wallpapers of the phone? If i take out my sim card and place it into another phone of different brand, would the default wallpapers change? Like the phone is Iphone but the sim card was previously of Samsung, so the wallpapers of Samsung would be in the phone instead of Iphone?
    Please answer, thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. So a SIMcard does hold my messages? Sent and received? All of them? So they would transfer with the card to a new phone? I've been trying to find a way to save these somewhere before my 12-year-old Nokia 3220 dies, including using the old Nokia PC Suite, but couldn't get a connection. Any help much appreciated

    ReplyDelete
  10. So a SIMcard does hold my messages? Sent and received? All of them? So they would transfer with the card to a new phone? I've been trying to find a way to save these somewhere before my 12-year-old Nokia 3220 dies, including using the old Nokia PC Suite, but couldn't get a connection. Any help much appreciated

    ReplyDelete
  11. So a SIMcard does hold my messages? Sent and received? All of them? So they would transfer with the card to a new phone? I've been trying to find a way to save these somewhere before my 12-year-old Nokia 3220 dies, including using the old Nokia PC Suite, but couldn't get a connection. Any help much appreciated

    ReplyDelete