Re: Tres amusant
Ron via Ale <[email protected]> Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:49:45 -0700
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DJPfulio--- via Ale wrote on 2026-06-10 11:40:
> We all hate spam calls/texts that try to defraud us and our parents.
> Also the use of these devices for other criminal purposes is a
> concern, but is surveilling 150M Americans really the best answer to
> address 100K spammers and criminals?
This is the crux of the problem - balancing privacy with anti-crime, and
it's tricky. These new SIM boxes¹ are kinda scary.
> Certainly there must be better options
Had the telco companies put effort into stemming the influx of VoIP scam
calls in the past couple decades, maybe we wouldn't have gotten to this
place. Not that they care, of course.
¹ Now there are SIM card boxes - think server racks - for nefarious
purposes. Would requiring ID for SIMs prevent these from their malicious
intent? Would a couple locations containing ten thousand or more active
SIM cards each be enough to enable a DoS attack on the mobile network,
even if unattached to a valid ID?
The following story is quite shocking - just the photos of "boxes" of
16² SIM cards per box stacked on racks... Yikes.
Photo of SIM boxes in a room
arstechnica.com
US uncovers 100,000 SIM cards that could have “shut down” NYC cell
network <#>
A "nation-state" is said to be involved.
🔗
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/09/us-uncovers-100000-sim-cards-that-could-have-shut-down-nyc-cell-network/
<https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/09/us-uncovers-100000-sim-cards-that-could-have-shut-down-nyc-cell-network/>
> Seems the easy answer would be to only require registration for phones
> used to call more than 25 or 50 different numbers in a month.
I like the idea but I wonder how easy it would be to implement, and how
effective when someone has 10,000 SIM cards and can distribute the calls
across those in high-value attacks?
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><font face="Tomson Talks">DJPfulio---
via Ale wrote on 2026-06-10 11:40:<br>
</font></div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:154caf95-7366-4c25-8679-d3405bd9dbf6-/[email protected]"><font
face="Tomson Talks">We all hate spam calls/texts that try to
defraud us and our parents. Also the use of these devices for
other criminal purposes is a concern, but is surveilling 150M
Americans really the best answer to address 100K spammers and
criminals?</font></blockquote>
<p><font face="Tomson Talks">This is the crux of the problem -
balancing privacy with anti-crime, and it's tricky. These new
SIM boxes¹ are kinda scary.</font></p>
<p><font face="Tomson Talks"><br>
</font></p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:154caf95-7366-4c25-8679-d3405bd9dbf6-/[email protected]"><font
face="Tomson Talks">Certainly there must be better options </font></blockquote>
<p>Had the telco companies put effort into stemming the influx of
VoIP scam calls in the past couple decades, maybe we wouldn't have
gotten to this place. Not that they care, of course.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>¹ Now there are SIM card boxes - think server racks - for
nefarious purposes. Would requiring ID for SIMs prevent these from
their malicious intent? Would a couple locations containing ten
thousand or more active SIM cards each be enough to enable a DoS
attack on the mobile network, even if unattached to a valid ID?</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>The following story is quite shocking - just the photos of
"boxes" of 16² SIM cards per box stacked on racks... Yikes.</p>
<aside xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
class="moz-card url-replaced"
style="width:600px; display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center; flex-direction:row; flex-wrap:wrap; border-radius:10px; border:1px solid silver;"
id="card-1781120764925">
<div class="card-pic"
style="display:flex; flex-direction:column; flex-basis:100%; flex:1;">
<div style="margin:0 5px;"> <img
src="https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/WallOfSimBoxes-1152x648-1758645213.jpg"
style="width: 600px;" alt="Photo of SIM boxes in a room"> </div>
</div>
<div class="card-content"
style="display:flex; flex-direction:column; flex-basis:100%; flex:3;">
<div style="margin:0 1em;">
<p><small class="site" style="font-weight:lighter;">arstechnica.com</small></p>
<p> <a href="#"
style="font-weight:600; text-decoration:none;"><big
class="title">US uncovers 100,000 SIM cards that could
have “shut down” NYC cell network</big></a> </p>
<p class="description">A "nation-state" is said to be
involved.</p>
<p> <a
href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/09/us-uncovers-100000-sim-cards-that-could-have-shut-down-nyc-cell-network/"
class="url"
style="display:inline-block; text-decoration:none; text-indent:-2ch; margin-inline:2ch;"
title="arstechnica.com">🔗
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/09/us-uncovers-100000-sim-cards-that-could-have-shut-down-nyc-cell-network/</a>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</aside>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:154caf95-7366-4c25-8679-d3405bd9dbf6-/[email protected]"><font
face="Tomson Talks">Seems the easy answer would be to only
require registration for phones used to call more than 25 or 50
different numbers in a month.</font></blockquote>
<p><font face="Tomson Talks">I like the idea but I wonder how easy
it would be to implement, and how effective when someone has
10,000 SIM cards and can distribute the calls across those in
high-value attacks?</font></p>
<br>
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