topic Re: SIM hacking in Get Support

SIM hacking

LoreckAvery — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 06:35:08 GMT

I’ve been having my own issues (not sim

hacked) and have noticed quite a few people are getting sim hacked on here! I hadn’t even heard of this prior to a couple months ago! Is public mobile especially prone to this? Is there a better security system to have in place to prevent this? This is legitimately my worst nightmare if this happens to me.

Re: SIM hacking

HALIMACS — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:39:17 GMT

Hi @LoreckAvery

Preventing SIM scamming is all about individuals doing everything they can to protect their identity and personal information from becoming part of the public realm.

Too many people share too much information online and use weak usernames and/or passwords.

There is certainly onus on the company, as well, to put in stringent measures as 2nd line defenses against persons who try to impersonate others.

It goes both ways, that's for sure.

Re: SIM hacking

kb_mv — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 14:54:56 GMT

@LoreckAvery wrote:
I’ve been having my own issues (not sim
hacked) and have noticed quite a few people are getting sim hacked on here! I hadn’t even heard of this prior to a couple months ago! Is public mobile especially prone to this? Is there a better security system to have in place to prevent this? This is legitimately my worst nightmare if this happens to me.

I think the spam police are after me again today. Messages are once again disappearing. Hopefully this makes it through.....

@LoreckAvery If you practice good cyber security online you should be OK. If, like a lot of people, you use the same easy password across a lot of sites or you post personal details and information on public sites (facebook, twitter etc) you may be setting yourself up for misery.

Re: SIM hacking

LoreckAvery — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 20:25:18 GMT

Ya, I’m stringent on security as my identity was stolen years ago now. Was curious more so if sim jacking was easier with a pay as you go provider like public vs the others. And what could public do to make it more difficult for someone to snag your sim!

Re: SIM hacking

kb_mv — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 20:29:59 GMT

@LoreckAvery wrote:
Ya, I’m stringent on security as my identity was stolen years ago now. Was curious more so if sim jacking was easier with a pay as you go provider like public vs the others. And what could public do to make it more difficult for someone to snag your sim!

@LoreckAvery All I can think of for PM to make it more difficult is to introduce 2FA (via authenticator app would be my preference). Other than that, a solid password (I use a password manager with crazy ass passwords lol) will help a lot. For someone to swap the sim on your account they need to have gotten inside the account to do it. To do that they have managed to get your password somewhere.

Re: SIM hacking

LoreckAvery — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 04:52:14 GMT

Not to sound like an idiot but that’s the only thing stopping them, my password on public mobiles site??

Re: SIM hacking

cellphoneuser1 — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 05:04:36 GMT

@LoreckAvery Your password is the only thing that stops someone from getting in your account.

Re: SIM hacking

LurganIeUk — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 05:13:56 GMT

@cellphoneuser1 wrote:
@LoreckAvery Your password is the only thing that stops someone from getting in your account.

Yes, a tough password. Also misspell or change your name a bit. And use an email address that is not your day to day one!!!

Re: SIM hacking

LoreckAvery — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 06:02:03 GMT

Why not your day to day email?

Re: SIM hacking

computergeek541 — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 17:28:31 GMT

@LoreckAvery wrote:
Why not your day to day email?

Any information that is commonly known about you and is associatee with your Public Mobile account, including your e-mail address, could be used by people to convince a moderator that the account is theirs.

Re: SIM hacking

Korth — Sat, 26 Dec 2020 02:54:54 GMT

@LurganIeUk wrote:

Okay. I got this!

But more seriously ... long passwords are better than complex passwords. Throw off brute force sequential attacks with a long sentence (in any language). Yes - a sentence - why use a paltry one or two words with a paltry 8 or 12 characters when you can easily remember a sentence with a total of 50+ characters? Throw off dictionary attacks by using at least one or two words which won't be found in any dictionary, maybe scramble the word order a little to break language attacks, just because it's so easy to make things so hard.

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy Korth" is easy to remember and 45-characters long. Add in a deliberate spelling error or typo so it can't be easily guessed or copied by strangers, add a number or symbol anywhere in the middle and the entire password suddenly also becomes "strong".

The requirement to arbitrarily use an uppercase, lowercase, number, symbol, etc doesn't actually add much security value because the "hacker" already knows (or must assume) the requirement. In fact, the more strict and rigidly-defined the password format must be, the more easily it can be guessed or computed.