5 major US wireless carriers vulnerable to SIM swapping attacks

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Content source

https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/01/13/major-us-wireless-carriers-vulnerable-sim-swap-scams/

When it comes to protection against this insidious type of scam, the telcos’ authentication procedures leave a lot be desired, a study finds

Five major US wireless carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Tracfone and US Mobile – are susceptible to SIM swap scams, a danger apparently looming large especially over prepaid accounts, a study by Princeton University researchers has found.

SIM swapping attacks, also known as port-out or SIM swap scams, have been a serious and growing problem of late, with its victims including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It has previously been shown that attackers can, with relative ease, execute these attacks to commandeer control of people’s phone numbers. From there, they can break into the victims’ banking, social media and other accounts that use the same phone number for multi-factor authentication.