As smartphones are increasingly required for all daily activities, cybercriminals are finding new methods to deceive their victims, which are becoming more sophisticated and complex over time.

One of them is called SIM ‘swapping’, a fraud through which cybercriminals try to fraudulently duplicate the SIM card of a user’s device, as mentioned by the Internet Security Office (OSI).

First, the attacker impersonates your identity to get a duplicate of your card. To do this, they contact the telephone operator of the card by phone and provide the victim’s personal information, such as their name and ID number.

Cybercriminals may have collected this data through other social engineering attacks (such as SMS fraud, ‘phishing’ or identity theft from the companies themselves), as well as by digging through your social networks.

Another way of accessing sensitive information of victims is through downloading fraudulent applications on their devices, or after connecting to free or fake Wi-Fi networks.

Once all the data has been collected and the call has been made to the company’s operator, the fraudsters can request a duplicate SIM card. In this way, a new card is created, and the one held by the legal user is invalidated.

Subsequently, the victim is left without telephone service, so that the mobile device will not be able to identify the SIM card, the coverage will not be reflected, nor will it allow the receipt or sending of SMS.

Cybercriminals, on the other hand, will be able to access your personal information and take control of your applications, impersonating your identity on social networks, email accounts or digital banking.

In this way, you can carry out bank transactions as you please since you also control the notifications that these services usually offer to confirm the sending and receipt of money transfers, among other actions.

How to avoid being victim of swapping

Because it is a very common scam and, at the same time, complex to stop, OSI recommends taking a series of measures to avoid being victims of this increasingly widespread fraud.

The first of these is to establish contact with the telephone company in the event of having lost coverage for no apparent reason, such as portability to another operator. In addition, it is convenient to establish two-step authentication, as an additional measure.

To do this, applications intended for your security protection, such as Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator, can be used and downloaded as alternative two-factor methods.

Likewise, it is advisable to update the account recovery options, in case the cybercriminals have managed to access other personal accounts to collect the necessary information to proceed with the ‘swapping’.

Special attention should also be paid to the information that is provided through social networks or public channels, as well as the Privacy Settings options of these platforms.

Finally, it is recommended to exclusively download applications from official stores such as Google Play or the Apple Store, as well as update the access credentials periodically.

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Source: dpa

La entrada Cases of swapping through smartphones increase apareció primero en Bitfinance.

Zariot, the digital security brand, in association with The @ Company, presented a new data protection system based on the SIM card. This method will use encryption to ensure privacy in the Internet of Things (IoT).

In this sense, it was learned that both US firms made the announcement while waiting for the Mobile World Congress to be held from today until March 3 in Barcelona. During this event, Zariot will be present and will show the technology to the general public.

In a statement, the companies explained that this system is based on the Kigen protocol. In addition, it uses the subscriber identification modules (SIM, for its acronym in English), eSIM or iSIM to achieve end-to-end encryption. So you don’t need virtual private networks like VPN, portals or additional hardware.

“This flexible long-term solution reduces the costs of entry operation, but also those that occur throughout the life of the business. Something that companies often do not take into account when launching a new product”, said the CEO of Zariot, Dawood Ghalaieny.

Source: elsumario

La entrada New data protection system through SIM card to be launched apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States proposed new rules that prevent two of the frauds that affect users the most, known as SIM duplication and transfer.

SIM duplication, known as SIM Swapping, and transfer fraud (to another carrier) are two techniques that allow cybercriminals to hijack a user’s phone number. Its importance lies in the fact that the telephone is usually one of the identity verification factors in digital services, such as bank payments or access to social networks.

To prevent this type of fraud, the FCC introduced new rules that oblige network operators to adopt more secure methods to validate the identity of a user before redirecting the phone number to a new device or carrier, as stated by the Commission in a statement.

These rules would also require operators to immediately notify users each time a SIM card is requested or changed. The FCC recognizes security breaches that expose users’ mobile data as a risk from these types of attacks.

Source: dpa

La entrada The US proposes an alternative to avoid SIM hacking apareció primero en Bitfinance.

HMD Global has entered the mobile phone market as an independent virtual operator (MVNO) with its HMD Mobile mobile network, which follows in the wake of its HMD Connect roaming solution.

The Finnish company presented its HMD Connect in March last year, a global roaming service with which it offers a SIM card that allows users to have data in more than 120 countries and can be managed through a mobile application.

This Thursday, the company has taken a step further in the mobile telephony market and announced HMD Mobile, a mobile network service that will arrive this month in the United Kingdom and later will be extended to the whole world with a gradual rollout.

The Vice President of Services at HMD Global, Janne Lehtosalo, stressed that the new service “is built on a foundation of trust, simplicity and flexibility, where you only pay for the functions that are used daily, with no fixed-term subscriptions or additional payments.”

Source: dpa

La entrada HMD Global launches mobile network service as independent virtual operator apareció primero en Bitfinance.