A tremendous security violation recognized in India: Same IMEI number operating on 13,557 Vivo phones.

A tremendous security violation recognized in India: Same IMEI number operating on 13,557 Vivo phones

 The Cyber cell of Meerut police has exposed a shocking breach of security administered by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo.

An FIR has been filed against the Vivo communications and its service centres as more than 13000 Vivo smartphones are operating on a single IMEI number.

As per statements, sub-inspector Asharam, who is posted in the office of Additional Director General of Police, Meerut, owns a Vivo Smartphone. When the screen of the mobile cracked, he presented it for servicing at the Vivo service centre on Delhi road in Meerut on 24 September 2019. The service centre returned him his mobile phone back with a new screen, battery, and the FM. After a few days, an error started appearing on the screen.

ADG Prashant Kumar charged the investigation to Cybercrime cell-in charge of Meerut zone police, Prabal Kumar Pankaj, and cyber expert Vijay Kumar. As the phone was not running well despite being serviced, he doubted foul play and presented the phone to cyber cell, which later revealed the huge security matter.

On January 16, the manager of the service centre answered that IMEI has not changed. Since the mobile had a sim of the Jio company, the Cyber cell transferred the supposed IMEI to the telecom company and requested for the data. The report caused an atomic revelation that on 24 September 2019 from 11 am to 11:30 am, the same IMEI number was working on 13557 mobile phones in various states of the country.

The cyber cell addressed a notice to Harmanjit Singh, the nodal officer of Vivo India under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code. However, the Police were not content with the reply to the notice. The officials of the company were also unaware that according to the rules of TRAI an IMEI should not be active on more than one mobile number.

The cyber cell has declared that the mobile phone company is grossly careless in this subject and violated the rules of TRAI. According to ADG Rajiv Sabarwal, several years ago when Chinese phones were introduced, then the IMEI number used to be the one.

These were a treat in terms of security, so the Indian government barred all the numbers. After this, the rules of TRAI arrived in authority. Under this, an IMEI can be assigned to only one mobile phone. ADG Sabarwal stated that the inquiry is initiated after it was declared that several thousand mobiles are running on a single IMEI number. It is a destruction of rules and this can be risky in terms of security.

If someday a crime has been done through a mobile phone with a similar IMEI number, then it won’t be probable to detect the accused. IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity is a unique 15 digit number which is compulsory for any mobile device having SIM cards.

This number helps in distinguishing a particular mobile device connected to a network. Security agencies can track phones utilizing this number, and stolen phones can be hunted and barred.