Security News

SIM swap scammer pleads guilty to Instagram account hijacks, crypto theft
2021-08-16 15:27

Declan Harrington, a Massachusetts man charged two years ago for his alleged involvement in a series of SIM swapping attacks, pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency from multiple victims and hijacking the Instagram account of others. Harrington was charged with Eric Meiggs in November 2019 for targeting the owners of high-value Instagram and Tumblr accounts.

Celeb SIM-Swap Crime Ring Stole $100M from U.S. Victims
2021-02-11 16:03

"The attacks orchestrated by this criminal gang targeted thousands of victims throughout 2020, including famous internet influencers, sport stars, musicians and their families," according to an alert from the organization. In a typical SIM-swapping attack, attackers use stolen, sleuthed or phished personal information - including, crucially, a person's mobile phone number - to impersonate a target.

Teenagers today. Can't take them anywhere, eh? 18-year-old kid accused of $50m SIM-swap cryptocurrency heist
2020-01-25 11:34

SIM swapping typically involves crooks tricking cellular network support staff to transfer victims' smartphone numbers to the criminals' own SIMs, and then using those numbers to reset passwords, or get two-factor authentication tokens, via text messages, and ultimately access and drain cryptocoin accounts. Admins using Cisco gear in their networks will want to head over to Switchzilla's security portal and check for applicable updates among the latest batch of 28 patches.

Mobile Carrier Customer Service Ushers in SIM-Swap Fraud
2020-01-17 21:03

Mobile carriers have left the door wide open to SIM-swap attacks, particularly when it comes to prepaid accounts, researchers have found. According to PhishLabs, a typical attack would start with an attacker phishing personal and banking information - often via SMS phishing, which has the added benefit of confirming that a victim's cell phone number is an active line.

Food writer Jack Monroe loses at least £5,000 in SIM-swap fraud
2019-10-16 10:53

Her accounts were drained in spite of using 2FA, showing that SIM swaps can still circumvent what's a good security tool.

Twitter CEO Hack Highlights Dangers of 'SIM Swap' Fraud
2019-09-04 12:36

Even with considerable security precautions in place, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey became the victim of an embarrassing compromise when attackers took control of his account on the platform...

Hacking gang stole millions in cryptocurrency via SIM swaps
2019-05-17 11:07

Six alleged members of "The Community" were indicted, along with three phone service employees who allegedly helped target subscribers.

FBI warns of SIM-swap scams, IBM finds holes in visitor software, 13-year-old girl charged over JavaScript prank...
2019-03-09 08:30

Tired: Booth babes. Wired: Floof babes. Expired: Conference hall carpets Roundup This week we had an NSA reverse-engineering toolkit released at the RSA Conference, a buffer bashed aboard British...

His phone went dark, then $1m was sucked out in SIM-swap crypto-heist
2018-11-26 12:00

A 21-year-old allegedly SIM-swapped Silicon Valley execs’ phones to steal cryptocurrency, including one man's $1m tuition fund for his kids.

Busting SIM Swappers and SIM Swap Myths
2018-11-07 05:49

KrebsOnSecurity recently had a chance to interview members of the REACT Task Force, a team of law enforcement officers and prosecutors based in Santa Clara, Calif. that has been tracking down...