The SIM Swapping attack allows a criminal to assign your phone number and gain access to all your accounts.
What is a SIM card?
SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module and is a small removable chip card that is inserted into the phone. Each SIM card is unique and linked to your phone number. You can insert a SIM card into another phone, and your phone number and all your account details will be transferred to the new device.
How does the work?
SIM Swapping starts with an attacker contacting your mobile carrier, posing as you. They may say that they need a new SIM card to activate their account, but the phone and the old SIM card are lost or damaged. Your mobile carrier will most likely request some information for identity verification, such as security questions or passport details that you specified.
After verifying your identity, a cybercriminal can reassign your phone number to their SIM card. Basically, it unlinked the number from your phone and linked it to its SIM card. At the same time, an attacker can reset passwords from all your accounts and pass any two-factor authentication. As a result, a fraudster can gain access to a variety of accounts, email, payment systems, social networks, online stores, etc.
How does a criminal know your passport details?
Thousands of data breaches have occurred in recent years, with billions of records that include payment details, passport details, names, email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, residential addresses, and birth dates of customers of multiple companies.
For example, in 2020, the passport data of online voting participants was leaked, but only the passport series and number were disclosed, which cannot be used to identify the owner directly. But by comparing the figures with other leaks, you can easily identify the citizen.
How do I find out if your SIMcard has been changed?
There are several clear signs that you are a victim of this attack:
If you see all these actions, please inform your mobile operator.
How can I prevent spoofing the SIM card?
There is no specific answer to this question, but there are several steps you can take to improve security:
What is a SIM card?
SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module and is a small removable chip card that is inserted into the phone. Each SIM card is unique and linked to your phone number. You can insert a SIM card into another phone, and your phone number and all your account details will be transferred to the new device.
How does the work?
SIM Swapping starts with an attacker contacting your mobile carrier, posing as you. They may say that they need a new SIM card to activate their account, but the phone and the old SIM card are lost or damaged. Your mobile carrier will most likely request some information for identity verification, such as security questions or passport details that you specified.
After verifying your identity, a cybercriminal can reassign your phone number to their SIM card. Basically, it unlinked the number from your phone and linked it to its SIM card. At the same time, an attacker can reset passwords from all your accounts and pass any two-factor authentication. As a result, a fraudster can gain access to a variety of accounts, email, payment systems, social networks, online stores, etc.
How does a criminal know your passport details?
Thousands of data breaches have occurred in recent years, with billions of records that include payment details, passport details, names, email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, residential addresses, and birth dates of customers of multiple companies.
For example, in 2020, the passport data of online voting participants was leaked, but only the passport series and number were disclosed, which cannot be used to identify the owner directly. But by comparing the figures with other leaks, you can easily identify the citizen.
How do I find out if your SIMcard has been changed?
There are several clear signs that you are a victim of this attack:
- Text messages and calls stop working;
- You receive emails about changes to your account;
- You found out that your social media accounts were hacked;
- The fraudster will charge money from your bank card.
If you see all these actions, please inform your mobile operator.
How can I prevent spoofing the SIM card?
There is no specific answer to this question, but there are several steps you can take to improve security:
- Set the pin code for your SIM card. If the card is lost or the phone is stolen, the attacker will have only 3 attempts to find the correct pin code, after which the SIM card will be blocked by hardware and it will be possible to restore it only from the telecom operator.
- Meta (is a product of the company In a major Facebook data leakSet up the privacy of your social media accounts. in 2021, no credentials were stolen, and the collected information was extracted from open profiles. Make personal information available only to you or trusted friends.
- Use a two-factor authentication app that doesn't use SMS messages.
- Ask your mobile operator how they can protect you from spoofing your SIM card. Write an application that allows you to change your SIM card only in person.
