Ever heard of Sim swapping? Not many had an idea about this term till now but the changing scenario of the world of cyber-crime is certainly pointing at its increasing misuse. In the late 2018, one of the former Apple employees came into limelight by being one of the victims of SIM swapping. Rob Ross was stunned when he saw $1 million of his savings vanish into thin air.
This is one of the cases of a growing cyber crime that is gradually yet consistently making its way. As per the U.S. Fair Trade Commission, around 1038 reported cases of identity theft were recorded in a single month as of January 2013. By January 2016, this number was more than double to 2658.
So, how does SIM swapping works?
Cyber-attackers use social engineering skills to manipulate the executive of the mobile service to reroute the victims’ present phone number to a new sim card that is in the hold of attacker. Once this process is completed, attackers can simply access victim’s account details, card details, one-time passwords etc. Basically, each piece of sensitive and confidential data that is synced up with the victim’s phone number.
What is the reason behind the success of cyber-attacks attempted through SIM swapping?
SIM swapping is one of the types of identity theft that is intended for high value victims. Social engineering skills play an extremely important role in the success of such attacks. Attackers gather a lot of information about the victim for such attacks. Prior to the occurrence of such attacks, victim usually receives a phishing email or a fake message luring the victim to reveal their personal information.
What should be done for safeguarding ourselves?
Use messaging services that use encryption in order to prevent your messages from being read by a third party.
Enabling two-factor authentication is a huge boost to the security against such fraudulent attempts.
