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Who Owns Your Wireless Service? Crooks Do.

Krebs on Security

Corrupt wireless company employees taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to unlock and hijack mobile phone service. Wireless providers selling real-time customer location data, despite repeated promises to the contrary. Incessantly annoying and fraudulent robocalls. AT&T in particular has had a rough month.

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FCC Proposal Targets SIM Swapping, Port-Out Fraud

Krebs on Security

30 , the FCC said it plans to move quickly on requiring the mobile companies to adopt more secure methods of authenticating customers before redirecting their phone number to a new device or carrier. a one-time passcode sent via email to the email address associated with the account. -a In a long-overdue notice issued Sept.

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Recycle Your Phone, Sure, But Maybe Not Your Number

Krebs on Security

New research shows how fraudsters can abuse wireless provider websites to identify available, recycled mobile numbers that allow password resets at a range of email providers and financial services online. While you’re at it, consider removing your phone number as a primary or secondary authentication mechanism wherever possible.

Mobile 360
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SIM Hijacking

Schneier on Security

SIM hijacking -- or SIM swapping -- is an attack where a fraudster contacts your cell phone provider and convinces them to switch your account to a phone that they control. Since your smartphone often serves as a security measure or backup verification system, this allows the fraudster to take over other accounts of yours.

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Can We Stop Pretending SMS Is Secure Now?

Krebs on Security

Lucky225 showed how anyone could do the same after creating an account at a service called Sakari , a company that helps celebrities and businesses do SMS marketing and mass messaging. From there, the attacker can reset the password of any account which uses that phone number for password reset links. ” WHAT CAN YOU DO?

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Are You One of the 533M People Who Got Facebooked?

Krebs on Security

To my mind, this just reinforces the need to remove mobile phone numbers from all of your online accounts wherever feasible. The HaveIBeenPwned project, which collects and analyzes hundreds of database dumps containing information about billions of leaked accounts, has incorporated the data into his service. According to a Jan.

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NSA issues advice for securing wireless devices

Malwarebytes

By releasing an information sheet that provides guidance on securing wireless devices while in public (pdf) —for National Security System, Department of Defense, and Defense Industrial Base teleworkers—the NSA has provided useful information on malicious techniques used by cyber actors, and ways to protect against them. Wi-Fi and encryption.

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