In such a technologically advanced day and age, security is more important than ever. Think about your own personal phone for a moment and what applications you have on it. Is your bank information stored in the app? Do you write all your passwords in a note so you won’t forget them? Is your email logged in? For a lot of people, the answer to most of these questions is yes. Until recently, this wasn’t an issue as long as you had a PIN on your phone that protected all these apps from unwanted users gaining access to their personal data.
The latest hacker trend is called “SIM swapping” and it is exactly as it sounds. Malicious users get access to your personal SIM card on your phone, which gives them access to all of your calls, texts, etc. Leading to potential access into other systems by gaining important information from your phone. Obviously this isn’t ideal for your own privacy reasons, but how does this help hackers get access to your important data in your business?
Applications that store your username and password have tried to evolve with the hacking trends, and in doing so created the 2FA (2 factor authentication), which made it so even if someone tried logging in with your credentials, they’d still need a code that was sent to your phone. So, in order to get this next step of information, hackers began SIM swapping.
How can I protect myself from this happening to me? Unfortunately there is no 100% guarantee you’ll be able to prevent this in entirety. But, you can certainly make it significantly harder for hackers in a number of ways.
The most obvious way is to put a PIN on your actual phone account with your provider. This way, if the hackers call to get our SIM associated to a different phone they won’t get past the security question.
The next way would be to use a 2FA application that has all your 2FA codes stored within the app itself. Cyber attackers only get access to calls and texts from SIM swapping, so this prevents that text message with the verification code being received.
A third way, if your institution allows, is to have your verification code emailed to you rather than texted. This isn’t always permitted depending on the security set up within the organization, so this sometimes is not an option.
The last way you could protect yourself is to put a PIN on your SIM directly. This is your fall safe. If the hacker is able to get your cell providers to associate your SIM onto their phone, once they restart the phone to get your info/update the changes made, they will be prompted to put in the SIM PIN, which they will not know.
As technology advances, so do the ways to hack into your personal data. Be conservative with the information you have on your phone and follow some of these protocols to protect yourself from SIM Swapping. Stay up to date with the latest cyber trends with us at NeQter Labs; we have your back!
