SIM Swapping, a new form of IT security hazard
As we all know lately, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been the victim of a short-lived computer hack.
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that hacking has highlighted a form of online piracy that up to this point little was known. Called SIM card scam still in English SIM swapping which means SIM card transfer, is a new form of hacking that is to use his victim's SIM card to access his accounts Online.
in practice the SWAPping SIM will consist for the hacker to try to transfer their victims' SIM card items on a new SIM card LEUR POSSESSION. How is this happening? It's simple cybercriminals contact mobile operators by posing as the victim. He then requests a SIM card transfer on a new SIM card claiming either a malfunction or the loss of a tool containing The card in question. It's that simple. Once this transfer is completed, hackers have access to all the information related to this SIM card. he These include calls, text messages or other related data. i.e. connections to online accounts. The major fault, some protection systems will be easy to hijack such as authentication double factor. "The phone number account was exposed due to a security error by the operator telephone" had announced twitter at the time of the attack on the its director.
if The social network believes that "no that Twitter's systems have been compromised, "the problem is not solved," ori Eisen, the founder of the cybersecurity firm, Trusona.
like it was mentioned, this attack has gained momentum lately, that or simply access celebrity accounts to publish celebrity unpleasant messages or to make online purchases at the expense of Victims.
Ori Eisen notifies that the current digital system facilitates manipulation and can make it very easy to get some information about victims and then use them as they see fit. What makes this technique hacking quite dangerous.
R. David Edelman, Director of the CyberSecurity Research Centre at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also a former white Housefirmed this: "The mobile phone messaging can be hacked by means sophisticated techniques, but also simply by convincing a migrate your account to another, on an unauthorized phone takes no more than a few minutes of confusion to commit a mischief like the one Dorsey was a victim of. »
for Ori Eisen, "Professionals security have to admit that what worked before doesn't work anymore (•••) We need to look for solutions that are not easy to exploit fraudsters but easy for people to adopt. »
But what is most surprising about this story is that the first officials even responsible for the security of SIM cards do not speak out on the issue because after all security is the responsibility of these mobile phone houses. Should they not further enhance their security by putting in place systems to further control their users.
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