A recent study has revealed a lot of security and privacy downfalls related to recycling phone numbers in smartphones. It can lead to many exploitations like conducting phishing activities, account takeover, spam attack, not allowing you to register for an online service, etc. Around 60% of recycled numbers being available in the market are attached to the last owner’s bank details. A popular website reveals it due to which attackers can easily attack anyone.
How do they carry out the process?
The cybercriminal will cycle the available numbers on the online number change interface. After that, they will check if they are connected with any banking account. A researcher reveals this entire thing, and if the person finds any information, he or she will recover the account simply tied to the phone number.
Resetting the password
After recovering, he can set the password, receive OTP, and make the setting required by an attacker. An analysis was done with 259 numbers present with the new subscribers. It is of the “US telecom majors T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.” The process was undertaken by Prof. Arvind Narayanan and Kevin Lee of Princeton University.
Deactivating a huge list of numbers
According to a report, it has also been found that around 35 million phone numbers are deactivated each year. Due to this, the attackers are in a position to attack you in different ways. They can encounter a recycled number, purchase them and log into the victim’s account to which the number has been linked to. The main reason for this attack is prepaid interfaces, changing numbers, etc. Additionally, it displays the full number giving the criminal the way to find out recycled numbers before confirming a change.
Associated with emails
In one report, 100 sample numbers were found connected with an email address leading to data breaches. It is another form of hijack done via “SMS-based multi-factor authentication.” So it means there is no limit to how the attackers can attack you.
Have a VPN connection
Many experts have claimed that using a VPN service can limit crimes to a great extent. Services like the ones found on internetprivatsphare, act as a protection guard, following which you can stop hackers from doing these activities. Now look for a VPN plan according to your organization and opt for it. The top service provider will give you various plans amongst which you can choose according to your demands.
