MasHD Blog

With the launch of the Nexus 5 on the cards next month, we’re beginning to get a brief idea of what to expect, thanks mainly to the plethora of leaks. And a new leak has now suggested that the Nexus 5 might come with support for nano SIM cards. Nano SIM cards have been a standard on Apple devices since the iPhone 5 last year, so it’s not new to the market by any means. This revelation comes from Ukrainian carrier Life which claims that it will provide nano SIM cards for its customers with smartphones like the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, Nexus 5 or other Android 4.4 smartphones. That’s a little odd as the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 aren’t official yet, but it should serve as confirmation as it is coming straight from the carrier. The LG made Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 are due for an announcement in mid-October, so there’s still a couple of weeks left until anything goes official. It seems logical that the Nexus 5 would come with a nano SIM card and it wouldn’t surprise me if it becomes a stan...

Almost every phone in existence uses a SIM card, especially GSM-based devices. It turns out, that while SIM cards are encrypted, they can easily be breached with just a couple of text messages, and it apparently takes only a couple of minutes. The hack allows someone to listen in on calls and steal mobile data from a phone The hack consists of cloaking a text message so that it looks like it was sent from the carrier, and about a quarter of the time, an error message is sent back containing information about the SIM card that can be used to break into it. After that, another text can be sent that officially finishes the job, allowing hackers into your phone. Security researcher Karsten Nohl of Security Research Labs discovered the exploit and says that up to 750 million handsets could be vulnerable to the hack. However, he notes that only SIM cards using older data encryption methods are at risk, while SIM cards using the newer Triple DES encryption are safe. Out of all the mob...