The Government of India is to introduce encrypted SIM cards to ensure secure communication . Nowadays, the transactions using the normal SIM is not secure as it is easy to hack the e-mail ids using software available over the internet . The proxy SIM cards carry digital certificate for secure SMSes and email . The increased use of mobile banking, trading, and commerce makes this security measure from governments part, a welcome development .
Normal SIM card
Proxy SIM card
Proxy SIM card is now used commonly to unlock phones, especially iphones . These proxy SIM cards can be inserted over regular ones . According to tech experts, a digitally signed SMS can be around 256KB while normal SMS will be around 40-50 KB, which certainly increases the cost of transfer.
The news is just preliminary and so we are not yet confirmed that these proxy SIMs will become mandatory or an option . Since the government is showing great concerns in the security of the nation, most probable chance will be its implementation, but still we have to wait for the final verdict .