a), (b), (c), and (d): As per the information provided by DoT, Ministry of Communications, No such case of Cloning of SIM card has come to the notice.
(e): As per the License conditions, the Telecom Service Providers are free to procure telecom equipment from any country based on techno-commercial considerations. As per Foreign Trade Policy, SIM cards can be imported freely into the country. There are security features implemented on both, the SIM itself and in Telecom Service Provider’s (TSP) network which do not allow the cloning, though there are some applications which claim to copy the contents of the SIM in case of physical access to the SIM card. However this copying of contents of a SIM card does not result in cloning of SIM as following technical measures for identification and authentication of the SIM have been implemented in telecom networks to protect SIM card.
i. Implementation of authentication Key (Ki) and ciphering Key (Kc) in a secure memory area of SIM.
ii. Implementation of crypto-algorithms on SIM with a self destruct feature in case of brute force method being attempted, exceeding a set value, for detection of Authentication Key, Generation Key and Encryption Key.
iii. Implementation of a Personal Identification Number (PIN), which is user configurable and PIN Unblocking Key (PUK), which is provided by the Telecom Service Provider only. Wrong PIN attempts beyond a set value (three) leads to SIM block, which can be unblocked only by entering PUK. A wrong attempt of PUK beyond a set value (ten) makes the SIM card permanently disabled.
i. Provision for only one SIM of a mobile number to be active in the network at any given time
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