SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
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Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#2Silicon Valley has a systemic customer service problem. The price you pay for "Free" services.
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#3Recently I discovered that Facebook has a policy that no one with pending misdemeanors can be hired if they are just a contractor. We recently had to turn away a 23 year old combat veteran who had deployed to Afghanistan because he had a pending Class C misdemeanor. That’s a max fine of $50 for the state this was in. All for a $16.50 an hour job.
The amount of indifference to suffering by people in the corporate world today has gotten...I am not even sure what the word is.
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#4This is a good place to remind everyone of Google Takeout [1]. Back up all of your data. Don't let this horror story happen to you.
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#5This is a good place to remind everyone of Google Takeout [1]. Back up all of your data. Don't let this horror story happen to you. [1] https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
Thanks for reminding me... again... about this. Why haven't I backed up my gmail data yet? It has been years since I realized I have to do it. Why haven't I done it?
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#6Silicon Valley has a systemic customer service problem. The price you pay for "Free" services.
I think the common wisdom dictates that since we aren't paying, we aren't the actual customers. I'll bet advertisers have great customer service.
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#7I believe Google has some kind of service you can turn on where you will pair it with a U2F token like a Yubikey or their Titan key. At that point, all other forms of login and password recovery are turned off. In theory, that should stop the SIM-swap attack.
See: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7539956?hl=en
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#8The industry needs to learn that sms 2fa is not secure because getting a sim for someone else is so easy. And this happening in every country.
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#9I believe Google has some kind of service you can turn on where you will pair it with a U2F token like a Yubikey or their Titan key. At that point, all other forms of login and password recovery are turned off. In theory, that should stop the SIM-swap attack. See: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7539956?hl=en
I use Authenticator, which should also stop a SIM-swap. However, I've noticed that many services seem to require activating 2FA via text message in order to activate authenticator. Has anyone else noticed that?
Re: SIM swap horror story: I've lost decades of data and Google won't help
#10I certainly didn't appreciate how much SIM cards are the keys to our modern lives until mine got stolen. Interestingly, my thieves took a different tack: they actually stole the physical SIM card! You might ask how this could happen: I was traveling internationally and had a friendly guy at an official kiosk in the Heathrow arrivals hall swap out my SIM card for a local SIM. He palmed my SIM and gave me back a dud without me noticing. He then shipped it back to Atlanta where collaborators used it to blindly called credit card support numbers. Some of these credit card numbers were hits — places where I had existing accounts and where they recognized my phone number. They social-engineered their way to get the CC companies to divulge more information about me — including the CC numbers themselves — allowing them to increase my credit limits and open new cards. They then went on a $40k shopping spree.
Of course I didn't notice until I came home. The dud card he gave me worked for 24 hours (I still don't understand how). And even after it stopped working, it took me quite some time to piece together everything that happened — I didn't realize that the SIM card I had wasn't mine for quite some time. Fortunately they did the equivalent of an identity theft smash-and-grab. It was relatively easy to identify and reverse, and they didn't compromise any tech 2FA services.
Interestingly Heathrow police didn't care as the "theft" was only a $5 SIM card and not a "high enough value item" to warrant investigation.
tldr: Don't let anyone ever touch your SIM cards.