Exercise Caution with Mobile Wallets
November 07 2018 - 12:39PM
InvestorsHub NewsWire
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Bitcoin Global News (BGN)
November 07, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- Just because
something is Cryptographically secure, does not mean that it cannot
be stolen. One way that this is unfortunately proving to be more
and more true is with SIM swapping. What this phenomenon results in
is stolen identities and stolen Crypto stashes as well, if these
stashes are kept on mobile phones. Despite this, you may not be
clear at this point on what SIM swapping entails. As I suggested
above, it is a form of hacking and stealing someone’s identity.
Precisely, this means that the hacker gets access to another
person’s mobile phone from far away.
If you are wondering how, what it
truly seems to involve is knowing enough or gaining enough personal
information on someone in order to call their cell phone company
and act as if you are them. Through the example of Michael Terpin,
who appears to have lost $24 million in Crypto due to SIM swapping,
we can see the quite scary reality of just how easy it seems to be
to do. First of all, this case appears to relate directly to how we
described this sort of attack above. Someone convinced his
cellphone provider that they were him and needed to transfer all of
the info on his phone to their phone. On a deeper level, research
by Cointelegraph indicates that this is often helped along by
insiders who educate the hackers on how to get through security
barriers at the cellphone companies they work with, in exchange for
payment. Now, according to Cointelegraph’s latest article on the
subject, the Cybercrime division of the California police have
decided that due to how easy such a crime is to pull off, it needs
to be at the top of their list.
Reportedly, they have even
allocated a special team called the Regional Enforcement Allied
Computer Team, to focus almost solely on this type of crime until
they determine it is brought under control. In the end, it is
reasonable to ask: what conclusion can the average Crypto investor
draw from this? For now, we can end by saying that mobile Crypto
wallets are not safe enough to hold any sort of serious amount of
Crypto in, at least not yet. Once some sort of measure is taken to
block this sort of criminal in their efforts, then maybe we will be
able to make a different conclusion altogether.
By: BGN Editorial Staff
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