Can SIM cards carry viruses?

[Trolled123]

hey guys, i have a brand new phone and my friend wants to insert his sim card into my phone and his phone may have a virus on it. so i need an answer, do sim cards have the ability to carry viruses? or no?

 

[Rukbat]

Anything with non-volatile memory can have a virus on it. I've never heard of a SIM card virus, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any. Install an anti-virus app on your phone if you're worried (which you should have done already).

Why would he want to put his SIM card into your phone? To make or receive calls on his number? (Or are you referring to his SD card?)

 

[Trolled123]

hey thanks, no i was referring to his sim card (he just wanted to test something out). what is non-volatile memory? i mean, i dont think sim cards have the ability to carry memory on them? or do they? thanks!

 

[Rukbat]

(Probably more than you ever wanted to know.)

Non-volatile memory is memory that doesn't go away when you remove power, like a hard drive, SD card or SIM card. RAM loses everything in it when you turn off the power - it's volatile.

SIM cards carry data in them - in a non-volatile memory chip in the card - the same as an SD card. You can keep contacts on them (you should keep them in Google Contacts, so you can easily sync them to a new phone, but you can keep them on the SIM card) and they don't disappear when you take the card out of the phone, which makes the memory non-volatile.

(Cards don't "carry" memory "on them" any more than hard drives do. They store data in the memory that they are - magnetic for hard drives, electronic for cards.)