Aside from all the technical problems with our phone system's architecture, there is stuff like this. Former telecom manager admits to doing SIM swaps for $1,000
SIM swapping is an unauthorized porting of a targeted person's phone number to another physical SIM card or eSIM chip controlled by the attacker. These types of attacks are usually conducted via social engineering attacks against customer support agents or through insiders at mobile companies.
This attack aims to take control of the target's phone number to receive SMS-based one-time passwords (OTPs) sent as part of two-factor authentication protection on online accounts.
It had been easy enough for hackers to social engineer the employees at a phone company. "Please, can't you help me?" was about all they had to say. Now that the phone companies and their employees have been hit over the head about that, they just find someone on the inside who needs some extra cash. And Bob's your uncle.
Katz received $1,000 in Bitcoin per SIM swap (total of $5,000), plus an (unspecified) percentage of the profits earned from the illicit access to the victims' devices.
For $5,000 he is now facing a maximum of five years in prison.
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