Sim Swapping

Published by Nick on July 8, 2019July 8, 2019

When hackers cannot break into your accounts by pressing buttons, they usually rely on tricking a human to help them get in. Sim Swapping is a new attack where a hacker will trick your cell phone provider to activate your cell phone number on the hacker’s phone. This allows them to take over your cell phone number and take your access away. With your cell phone number activated on their phone, they can trick most of your accounts to reset the password and lock you out, all accounts that are associated with your phone number.

Matthew Miller from ZDNet was the victim of a Sim Swapping attach this year; “First they hijacked my T-Mobile service, then they stole my Google and Twitter accounts and charged my bank with a $25,000 Bitcoin purchase. I’m stuck in my own personal Black Mirror episode. Why will no one help me?” SIM swap horror story We are using online accounts more and more and finding it hard to work or live life without them, when someone takes your access away, they can cause a lot of harm.

How can you prevent a Sim Swapping attack? Most mobile phone providers have the option to add a pin to your account. The pin will add an extra layer of security to make the hackers job harder. Another thing that helps is to use an app for multi-factor authentication, using your mobile phone number is good but an app is much better and can help prevent account access in a Sim Swapping attack.