Anti-theft system and method for mobile phone

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to an anti-theft system and method for mobile phone.

2. Description of Related Art

With the development of wireless communication and information processing technology, portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones are now in widespread use.

However, as mobile phones become smaller, the mobile phones may be more easily lost or stolen.

Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Many aspects of the present anti-theft system and method for mobile phone can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the various drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present anti-theft system and method for mobile phone.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a real-name card-issuing system and a SIM card, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a mobile phone and the SIM card shown in FIG. 1 , according to the exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the mobile phone and an examination smart card shown in FIGS. 1-2 .

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the mobile phone and an initialization smart card shown in FIGS. 1-2 .

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the first cryptographic keys setting and verification between the SIM card and the real-name card-issuing system shown in FIG. 1 .

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the second cryptographic keys setting and verification between the SIM card and the mobile phone shown in FIG. 2 .

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of initialization of the mobile phone shown in FIG. 2 .

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a mobile phone anti-theft system according to an exemplary embodiment. The mobile phone anti-theft system includes a real-name card-issuing system 10 , a mobile phone 20 and a SIM card 30 .

Referring to FIG. 1 , the real-name card-issuing system 10 is the information management system of the communication operators, i.e., wireless carriers. The real-name card-issuing system 10 includes a central processing unit 100 , a first user information storage area 102 , transmission equipment 104 , an examination smart card 106 , an initialization smart card 108 and a card reader 110 . The first user information storage area 102 , the central processing unit 100 , the transmission equipment 104 and the card reader 110 are electronically connected together. The examination smart card 106 , the initialization smart card 108 and the SIM card 30 can communicate with the central processing unit 100 through the card reader 110 and the transmission equipment 104 . The transmission equipment 104 reads the information from the card connected to the card reader 110 and sends the information to the central processing unit 100 . The card reader 110 should be only connected to one card at a time. The examination smart card 106 includes a first processor 1061 and a first storage area 1063 . The initialization smart card 108 includes a second processor 1081 and a second storage area 1083 . The SIM card 30 includes a third processor 32 and a third storage area 34 . The third storage area 34 stores user information, first cryptographic keys and second cryptographic keys.

Referring also to FIG. 2 , the mobile phone 20 includes a micro control unit 21 , a second user information storage area 23 and a transmission unit 25 . The second user information storage area 23 , the micro control unit 21 and the transmission unit 25 are electronically connected together. The transmission unit 25 reads the information from the card inserted into the mobile phone 20 and sends the information to the micro control unit 21 . The SIM card 30 , the examination smart card 106 , and the initialization smart card 108 can communicate with the micro control unit 21 through the transmission unit 25 . The examination smart card 106 and the initialization smart card 108 are owned by the communication operators, so when the examination smart card 106 or the initialization smart card 108 is inserted into the mobile phone 20 , the mobile phone 20 can be operated normally without verifying the cryptographic keys. When the SIM card 30 is inserted into the mobile phone 20 , the second cryptographic keys should be verified before using the mobile phone 20 .

Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 , the first processor 1061 and the second processor 1081 can communicate with the micro control unit 21 through the transmission unit 25 . Referring to FIG. 5 , the SIM card 30 should be registered in the real-name card-issuing system 10 before the initial use. If the user information of the SIM card 30 needs to be changed, first, the real-name card-issuing system 10 should verify the first cryptographic keys of the SIM card 30 . The processes of the registering and making changes in the user information of the SIM card 30 may include the following steps:

In step S 1 , the user information such as user name, sex, ID number, address and so on are inputted into the real-name card-issuing system 10 and saved in the first user information storage area 102 .

In step S 2 , the SIM card 30 is electronically connected to the card reader 110 , the card reader 110 reads the information of the SIM card 30 and sends the information to the central processing unit 100 . The central processing unit 100 judges whether the SIM card 30 is new. If the SIM card 30 is new, the process goes to step S 3 , where the real-name card-issuing system 10 sends the user information inputted in step S 1 to the SIM card 30 . If the SIM card 30 is not new, the process goes to step S 6 , where the real-name card-issuing system 10 sends the user information inputted in the step S 1 and the first cryptographic keys stored in the first user information storage area 102 to the SIM card 30 .

In step S 4 , the third processor 32 receives the user information and saves it in the third storage area 34 . The third processor 32 randomly generates initial keys and sends them to the real-name card-issuing system 10 .

In step S 5 , the real-name card-issuing system 10 receives the initial keys as the first cryptographic keys and saves the initial cryptographic keys to the first user information storage area 102 . Thus, the registration of the SIM card 30 is completed.

In step S 7 , the SIM card 30 receives the user information and the first cryptographic keys.

In step S 8 , the SIM card 30 judges whether the first cryptographic keys are validated. If the first cryptographic keys are validated, the process goes to step S 9 , where the SIM card 30 updates the user information and sends random cryptographic keys to the real-name card-issuing system 10 . If the first cryptographic keys are not validated, the process goes to step S 11 , where the SIM card 30 sends update failure message to the real-name card-issuing system 10 . Thus, the SIM card 30 can not be used.

In step S 10 , the real-name card-issuing system 10 receives the random cryptographic keys and saves the random cryptographic keys to the first user information storage area 102 . Thus, the user information is updated and the first cryptographic keys verification between the real-name card-issuing system 10 and the SIM card 30 is completed.

Referring to FIG. 6 , the SIM card 30 should have registered in the real-name card-issuing system 10 before being used in the mobile phone 20 . After each startup of the mobile phone 20 , the mobile phone 20 verifies the second cryptographic keys of the SIM card 30 . The processes of the second cryptographic keys setting and verification between the SIM card 30 and the mobile phone 20 may include the following steps:

In step S 12 , the SIM card 30 is inserted into the mobile phone 20 and the mobile phone 20 is turned on.

In step S 13 , the third processor 32 judges whether the mobile phone 20 is new. If the mobile phone 20 is new, the process goes to step S 14 , where the third processor 32 sends the user information to the micro control unit 21 . If the mobile phone 20 is not new, the process goes to step S 17 , where the third processor 32 sends the user information and the second cryptographic keys to the micro control unit 21 .

In step S 15 , the micro control unit 21 receives the user information and saves it to the second user information storage area 23 . The micro control unit 21 randomly generates cryptographic keys and sends them to the third processor 32 .

In step S 16 , the third processor 32 receives the random cryptographic keys as the second cryptographic keys and saves the random cryptographic keys to the third storage area 34 . Thus, the second cryptographic keys setting between the SIM card 30 and the mobile phone 20 is completed.

In step S 18 , the micro control unit 21 receives the user information and the second cryptographic keys and judges whether the second cryptographic keys are validated. If the second cryptographic keys are not validated, the process goes to step S 19 , where the mobile phone 20 is locked. If the second cryptographic keys are validated, the process goes to step S 20 , where the micro control unit 21 judges whether the user information is changed according to the user information comparison between the second user information storage area 23 and the third storage area 34 .

In step S 20 , if the user information is changed, the process goes to step S 21 , where the micro control unit 21 updates the user information and sends random cryptographic keys to the SIM card 30 . If the user information is not changed, the process goes to step S 23 , where the micro control unit 21 randomly generates cryptographic keys and sends them to the third processor 32 .

In step S 22 , the third processor 32 receives the random cryptographic keys and saves the random cryptographic keys to the third storage area 34 . Thus, the user information update and the second cryptographic keys verification between the SIM card 30 and the mobile phone 20 is completed.

In step S 24 , the SIM card 30 receives the random cryptographic keys of the step S 23 and saves the random cryptographic keys to the third storage area 34 . Thus, the second cryptographic keys verification between the SIM card 30 and the mobile phone 20 is completed.

Referring to FIG. 7 , a flow chart of the mobile phone initialization is shown. If the mobile phone 20 needs to use another new SIM card or another old SIM card, the real-name card-issuing system 10 should initialize the mobile phone 20 . The process of the mobile phone initialization may include the following steps:

In step S 25 , the examination smart card 106 is inserted into the mobile phone 20 and the mobile phone 20 is turned on.

In step S 26 , the first processor 1061 sends instructions of reading the user information to the micro control unit 21 .

In step S 27 , the micro control unit 21 receives the instructions of reading the user information and sends the user information of the second user information storage area 23 to the first processor 1061 . The first processor 1061 receives the user information and saves it to the first storage area 1063 .

In step S 28 , the examination smart card 106 is taken out of the mobile phone 20 and connected to the card reader 110 .

In step S 29 , the central processing unit 100 reads the user information from the examination smart card 106 and judges whether there is a need for initializing the mobile phone 20 according to the effective ID of the user, i.e., valid ID card. If the effective ID of the user corresponds with the user information stored in the examination smart card 106 , the process goes to step S 30 , where the initialization smart card 108 is inserted into the mobile phone 20 and the mobile phone 20 is turned on. If the effective ID of the user does not correspond with the user information stored in the examination smart card 106 , the process goes to step S 19 , where the mobile phone 20 is locked.

In step S 31 , the second processor 1081 of the initialization smart card 108 sends the initialization commands to the micro control unit 21 .

In step S 32 , the mobile phone 20 is initialized, the process goes to step S 12 .

According to the first cryptographic keys authentication, the second cryptographic keys authentication and the real-name card-issuing system, the mobile phone can not be used if the SIM card is changed. If the user want to change the SIM card, the effective ID of the user must be shown to the communication operators, and the communication operators makes the real-name card-issuing system to compare the user information with the effective ID. If the effective ID of the user corresponds with the user information, the mobile phone will be initialized, and then the user can change the SIM card.

It is to be further understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present embodiments have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of structures and functions of various embodiments, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the present invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.