Here’s a new term to fear: SIM-swapping.
In short, a cyber-criminal steals a certain amount of your personal data, including your phone number. He contacts a different carrier, pretending to be you, and claims to have lost “his” phone. He convinces the carrier to supply a new phone and SIM, disconnects the “old” line, then transfers “his” apps and information from the cloud.
This kind of data-mining is of little surprise. Security researchers recently found 21 million stolen logins for sale on the Dark Web. Tap or click to see how weak passwords are to blame.
But it gets worse. In theory, you have two-factor authentication, which would help prevent a security breach. Not sure how 2FA works? Tap or click to see why you should be using this powerful security tool on all your accounts.
With SIM-swapping, the criminal controls your phone using a different device. So the 2FA text message that would normally alert you to the thief’s presence never reaches you.
Suddenly your phone doesn’t work, and while you’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with it – without being able to make calls – the hacker is easily digging through your apps and files, gorging himself on your private data, and likely even your bank account information.
By the time you’ve caught up, your passwords have been changed and you are stuck desperately trying to regain control of your own accounts.
More than 3,000 people have lost access to critical accounts, thanks to SIM-swapping, with some reporting being blackmailed in addition to having their identities s ..
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