Mobile Number Hijacking and Sim Port Outs to Help Crypto MNVO Organizations
Mobile number portability allows customers to retain the same phone number across different carriers. However, though it enhances convenience, it also gives rise to a new scam called SIM mobile number Hijacking. Mobilen offers MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) services with features that help prevent SIM mobile number hijacking and unauthorized sim port-outs for individuals and digital asset organizations.SIM swapping attacks have exponentially risen since 2018, with the US FBI confirming that American citizens have lost more than $68M to such attacks in 2021. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received more than 1900 complaints of SIM mobile number Hijacking between 2018 and 2021. Hijacked SIM cards have been used to steal personally identifiable information (PII), enabling malicious actors to sweep entire bank accounts. Recently, the authorities arrested ten individuals belonging to a nefarious network who used SIM swap attacks to siphon off nearly $100M worth of cryptocurrencies from the accounts of high-profile individuals.
Mobile number hijacking has been responsible for breaches in mobile crypto mvno security, leading to huge losses for crypto mvno establishments and individuals alike. The significance of a crypto MVNO(Mobile Virtual Network Operator) in dealing with mobile number takeover attacks cannot be overemphasized to ensure mobile security for crypto mvno. Mobilen, a leading telecom service provider for digital asset organizations, can provide such advanced solutions to help stop SIM mobile number hijacking and unauthorized sim port-outs to secure mobile crypto mvno companies.
What Is SIM Mobile Number Hijacking?
SIM Hijacking occurs when the threat actor deceivingly persuades or influences your cell phone service provider to move your phone number to their smartphone instead of yours. In simple words, SIM mobile number Hijacking allows the malicious actor to take over and control your phone number. All calls, text messages, and MMS messages go to their device instead of yours. SIM mobile number Hijacking is known by various names, including SIM Port Hacking, SIM Swapping, SIM Swap Attack, SIM Card Hijacking, etc.
How Can You Know If Your SIM Has Been Swapped?
The magnitude of the risk in a SIM swapping attack is high because it can happen to anyone. Hence, every organization handling crypto mvno assets and mobile users needs to know how SIM mobile number Hijacking works and how to determine if they have become a victim of a SIM swap attack. Here is how SIM mobile number Hijacking works.
STEP-1: Malicious actors use various ways, including phishing, data breaches, etc., to obtain
the victim’s personally identifiable information.
STEP-2: This information helps the threat actor make a fake number sim porting request and
convince the mobile carrier organization to switch to a new SIM.
STEP-3: Using this SIM, the fraudster can control every aspect of the target’s mobile data and
applications, log into accounts using MFA (Multi-factor Authentication), etc.
STEP-4: The attackers can use the compromised accounts in various ways, including demanding a ransom from you to restore the number and other nefarious uses like selling them off on the Dark Web.
You can know if your SIM has been swapped in many ways. Here are some warning signs indicating that a SIM swap has occurred.
1. You receive sudden messages from your service provider that your SIM card and phone number have been activated elsewhere on another device.
2. Depending on your settings, you get notifications or email alerts that your credentials, like passwords, security questions, login credentials, PINs, etc., have been changed from unknown locations and devices.
3. Once the SIM swap is complete, you will not receive texts and phone calls anymore because the device in your hand becomes inert, and the threat actor’s instrument becomes active with your number working on it.
4. You will be unable to use the apps loaded on your device.
5. Your financial institutions will send notifications of suspicious activities and fraud alerts.
SIM Hijacking Protection: How To Prevent SIM Swapping
The above points showed how easily a SIM mobile number Hijacking process could take place. Therefore, it is critical for users and mobile carriers to know how to prevent and protect against SIM mobile number Hijacking or SIM swapping. The risk of the SIM swapping attacks has also increased with the increase in the number of mobile devices from approximately 122 million devices in 2007 to 1.4 billion devices worldwide in 2021, as per Statista. According to another report from Statista, 87% of the US population will have smartphones by 2025.
Tips for consumers to prevent SIM swapping
- While it is essential to protect online accounts with 2FA (Two-factor Authentication), it is advisable to use biometrics, a standalone authentication procedure, or a physical security token instead of SMS or phone calls.
- Avoid sharing personal information through any transmission channel.
- Maintain password discipline by using robust passwords.
- Store login credentials and passwords with password managers.
- Switch mobile carriers to high-level telecom service providers like Mobilen MVNO.
What Is MVNO, And Why Choose One?
SIM mobile number Hijacking involves the malicious actor requesting the mobile service provider to transfer all details from the victim’s SIM to a new one and deactivate the original SIM. They impersonate you and use your credentials obtained surreptitiously to place a sim port-out request with the mobile carrier. Without the sim port-out, a Sim Hijack cannot be performed by the threat actors.
This is where an MVNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator line Mobilen becomes relevant. MVNOs are dedicated alternative mobile network providers that bridge larger networks and the users by providing extra security features that the users don’t otherwise get.
MVNOs can be helpful because they offer facilities that support PIN creation and password generation when creating an account, which usual networks don’t provide. With these PINs and passwords in place, adversaries will find it impossible to complete the sim port-out. It is an excellent way to stop anyone from attempting to steal your ownership of the SIM number and identity.
An efficient MVNO is thus a savior to keep your communication channels and assets intact. You must choose an MVNO that can offer the most advanced features to secure your digital and crypto mvno assets.
Mobilen MVNO Advantages: Why Mobilen Could Be Your Best Choice
Mobilen has been an undisputed leader in the MVNO space with over 15 years of experience. The organization used to work directly for corporate telecom carriers. Mobilen is a B2B platform and has recently been in the news for attracting crypto mobile security organizations and offering services such as crypto MVNO, crypto mobile security, etc.
The increased MVNO market size is also a testament to why organizations trust and rely on MVNOs. As per the MarketsandMarkets report, the MVNO market size is projected to grow from 64 billion USD in 2019 to 89 billion USD by 2024.
(Source: MarketsandMarkets)
Mobilen provides its crypto mobile security handling clients with complete security and protects their phone numbers by offering facilities to set up their passwords and PINs during account creation. Mobilen focuses on digital asset organizations that require high-security SIM protection and prevention of sim port-outs. All infrastructure of Mobilen is owned, managed, and maintained by AT&T. Here is why Mobilen should be your best choice for MVNO services.
- Anonymized services for better protection
- Mobilen MVNO offers the benefit of a hidden account where the carrier employees cannot view the users’ contracts or details from accounts.
- Mobilen MVNO uses anonymization, a data processing technique that erases personally identifiable information. In addition, it uses renowned techniques like data masking, pseudonymization, generalization, data swapping, data perturbations, etc., to ensure more security and an anonymity perspective.
- Ekim, N. (2022, February 22). Stopping SIM swapping: Tips for consumers & mobile carriers. Keeper Security Blog – Cybersecurity News & Product Updates.
Mozilla Explains: SIM swapping3. Cimpanu, C. (2022, February 9). FBI: $68 million lost to SIM swapping attacks in 2021. The Record by Recorded Future. https://therecord.media/fbi-68-million-lost-to-sim-swapping-attacks-in-2021/ 4. Arghire, I. (2022, February 9). FBI received 1,600 SIM swapping complaints in 2021. Securityweek.Com. https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-received-1600-sim-swapping-complaints-2021 5. Cipher. How SIM card hijacking works.https://cipher.com/blog/how-sim-card-hijacking-works/ 6. Hesse, B. (2020, January 14). How to tell if you’re the victim of a SIM-swapping attack. Lifehacker. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-tell-if-youre-the-victim-of-a-sim-swapping-attac-1841000917
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