Monday, November 26, 2012

US Handset Serial Number Databases

US Handset Serial Number Databases

US operators maintain their own stolen and blacklisted cellphone databases. As of the 31st October 2012 the GSM operators AT&T and T-Mobile began sharing their databases. CDMA operators Verizon and Sprint have taken the decision to merge their databases but that will not be complete until November 2013, so we are told.

The said objective of these initiatives are to improve track and trace. As an example, GSM uses a 56-bit decimal digit s/n, whereas CDMA uses a 56-bit hexadecimal digitals s/n. However, in the US there are variations of s/ns to consider.

The engine for these changes is driven by the FCC initiative - http://www.fcc.gov/document/announcement-new-initiatives-combat-smartphone-and-data-theft

To accommodate this and other cellphone/cellular changes I have altered my CDMA training material and GSM training material. As consequence these changes will also have an impact on WCDMA and LTE, either on a national level or international level. These training materials have also changed, too.

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Institute for Digital Forensics (IDF) - LinkedIn
Mobile Telephone Examination Board (MTEB) - LinkedIn

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