Security News

Former telecom manager admits to doing SIM swaps for $1,000
2024-03-15 15:26

A former manager at a telecommunications company in New Jersey pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for accepting money to perform unauthorized SIM swaps that enabled an accomplice to hack customer accounts. 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.

SIM swappers hijacking phone numbers in eSIM attacks
2024-03-14 18:08

SIM swappers have adapted their attacks to steal a target's phone number by porting it into a new eSIM card, a rewritable SIM chip present on many recent smartphone models. Russian cybersecurity firm F.A.C.C.T. reports that SIM swappers in the country and worldwide have been taking advantage of this shift to eSIMs to hijack phone numbers and bypass protections to access bank accounts.

SBF likely off the hook for misplaced FTX funds after cops bust SIM swap ring
2024-02-05 01:27

The trio's biggest haul was the theft of more than $400 million in cryptocurrency from an unnamed "Victim Company-1" on November 11, 2022 - the same day that FTX declared bankruptcy and an unknown attacker stole roughly $415m in crypto from the firm. While SBF might be off the hook for this element of his mismanagement of FTX, that won't help him to walk free as was convicted on seven charges in October 2023 and faces up to 110 years in prison when sentenced next month.

SEC confirms X account was hacked in SIM swapping attack
2024-01-22 23:04

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed today that its X account was hacked through a SIM-swapping attack on the cell phone number associated with the account. Today, the SEC has confirmed that a cell phone account associated with the X account suffered a SIM-swapping attack.

SIM swapper gets 8 years in prison for account hacks, crypto theft
2023-11-29 19:26

Amir Hossein Golshan, 25, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Los Angeles District Court and ordered to pay $1.2 million in restitution for crimes involving SIM swapping, merchant fraud, support fraud, account hacking, and cryptocurrency theft. Golshan pleaded guilty on July 19, 2023, for hijacking the Instagram account of a prominent social media influencer.

UK government rings the death knell for SIM farms
2023-11-29 11:01

The UK government plans to introduce new legislation to ban SIM farms, which it views as a widely abused means for carrying out cyber fraud. SIM farms are defined as devices that can hold four or more SIM cards while having the ability to make phone calls and send texts.

FCC adopts new rules to protect consumers from SIM-swapping attacks
2023-11-18 16:10

The Federal Communications Commission has revealed new rules to shield consumers from criminals who hijack their phone numbers in SIM swapping attacks and port-out fraud. In SIM swapping attacks, criminals trick a victim's wireless carrier into redirecting their service to a device controlled by the fraudster.

FCC Enforces Stronger Rules to Protect Customers Against SIM Swapping Attacks
2023-11-17 12:37

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is adopting new rules that aim to protect consumers from cell phone account scams that make it possible for malicious actors to orchestrate...

Ransomware crooks SIM swap medical research biz exec, threaten to leak stolen data
2023-11-01 22:46

Ransomware crooks claim they've stolen data from a firm that helps other organizations run medical trials after one of its executives had their cellphone number and accounts hijacked. The Register understands one or more people close to or affiliated with the notorious Alphv, aka BlackCat, extortion gang managed to get into a work account of an exec at Advarra and may have copied out at least some information from the business.

Florida man jailed after draining $1M from victims in crypto SIM swap attacks
2023-10-30 22:53

Jordan Persad, of Orlando, was also ordered to pay $945,833 in restitution. According to a plea agreement reached with US prosecutors [PDF], between at least March 2021 and September 2022, Persad and his co-conspirators, some he only knew by their online handles, used SIM swapping to siphon funds from their marks.