All these days we have discussed software and hardware vulnerabilities exhibited by Smartphones. But in this article, we will discuss how your cell phone number can poses as a security threat if fallen into the hands of hackers. But luckily, there’s a fix!
Nowadays, many online service providers are insisting to share your phone number so that they can send in a text notification to your cell phone, to prove your identity and authenticity. This includes online shopping websites, social media sites and such.
But mind you, this small piece of info, which looks simple, can wreak havoc in your life if/when fallen into wrong hands.
For instance, let us suppose a hacker found your cell phone number along with other pieces of info like your DoB. Then he/she can contact the mobile carrier provider in disguise of you. They can say that they tend to port your number to a different phone/model which obviously rests in their possession. As details such as DOB are in the possession of the hacker they can easily convince the mobile carrier to activate the phone services on their SIM- which later helps them in receiving and making calls and text messages on their phone.
As nowadays, most of the email services providers are sending text messages on their user’s phones, the hacker can easily spoof the email services provider to reset the password of your email- thus giving them access to tons of data from your email account.
Pretty much concerned! Don’t worry as there is a way to combat this issue by simply calling in the customer care of your mobile carrier and requesting them to add a secondary password on your account to ensure that only you can have access to your account and can stay assured that the authority to change the account or port out the number remains solely with you.
In general, every carrier has its own way of issuing secondary security codes such as filling in digits, passcodes, passphrase and security questions. AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint have already provided the reference pages to their respective users on this issue.
Now, to those who are in a dilemma on what should be done if their carrier doesn’t offer such features? The only way is to port your cell phone number to a telecom service provider that does.
