How one can defend your cellular phone quantity from SIM swap assaults
It’s 2025, and cellular phone numbers are ubiquitous. We use our cellphone numbers to join web sites and on-line companies, from retail and banking to social media and well being suppliers. You should use your cellphone quantity to reset a forgotten password, and even for receiving two-factor authentication codes for securely logging in to your accounts.
But when somebody can steal your cellphone quantity, they’ll successfully grow to be you.
Along with your cellphone quantity, a hacker can begin getting access to your on-line accounts, and even trick automated techniques into pondering they’re you when calling customer support. A hijacked cellphone quantity can generally be used to entry an organization’s community as in the event that they had been that worker, permitting entry to delicate information and information.
That is all of the extra cause to proactively defend your cellphone quantity from SIM swapping, a kind of cyberattack that entails a hacker hijacking a sufferer’s cellphone quantity. The excellent news is that it’s simpler than it’s ever been to lock down your quantity.
SIM swapping assaults normally occur when a malicious hacker calls up a cell service impersonating a particular buyer. This hacker would use data they discovered on-line, resembling a buyer’s title and date of start, after which ask a buyer assist consultant to switch or “port out” that quantity to a unique SIM card or service. As quickly as that course of completes, the particular person’s cellphone quantity will activate on a SIM card or cellphone managed by the hacker, permitting them to make calls and ship and obtain textual content messages as in the event that they had been the particular person they simply hacked.
Oftentimes, the one signal that this has occurred is that if the sufferer out of the blue loses cell service for seemingly no cause.
SIM swap assaults exploit a weak point within the safety controls inside a cell suppliers’ inner techniques that permit assist representatives make adjustments to buyer accounts with out essentially getting the client’s specific permission.
To fight these sorts of impersonation and deception techniques, referred to as social engineering assaults, three main cellphone carriers in the USA — AT&T, T-Cellular and Verizon — have launched safety features that make it tougher for malicious hackers to deceptively get a buyer’s account modified, resembling porting out their cellphone quantity.
Take a minute or two to verify your cellphone service’s account; these options are sometimes not publicized very properly and will not be enabled by default.
AT&T
In July, AT&T launched its free Wi-fi Account Lock safety characteristic to assist stop SIM swaps. The characteristic permits AT&T prospects so as to add additional account safety by toggling on a setting that forestalls anybody from transferring a SIM card or cellphone quantity to a different gadget or account. The characteristic could be switched on through AT&T’s app or via its on-line account portal by anybody who manages the account, so make it possible for account is protected with a novel password and multi-factor authentication.
T-Cellular
T-Cellular permits prospects to forestall SIM swaps and block unauthorized quantity port outs at no cost via their T-Cellular on-line account. The first account holder must log in to alter to the setting, resembling switching it on or off.
Verizon
Verizon has two safety features known as SIM Safety and Quantity Lock, which respectively stop SIM swaps and cellphone quantity transfers. Each of those options could be turned on through the Verizon app and thru the web account portal by an account’s proprietor or supervisor. Verizon says that switching off the characteristic might end in a 15-minute delay earlier than any transactions could be carried out — one other safeguard to permit the reputable account holder to reverse any account adjustments.