In the highlight of Jack Dorsey’s (CEO of Twitter) recent Twitter hack, many people are on the fence about their privacy when it comes to social media platforms. Recently, hackers were able to get access to the CEO’s Twitter account for nearly twenty minutes. According to Twitter, “Hackers had gained access to Dorsey’s profile by effectively stealing his mobile phone number, which was compromised due to a “security oversight” by the carrier.” Shortly after this event actress, Chole Moretz also faced the same issue with her Twitter account.
So, the question being asked is, “How is this possible?” CNBC says, “a scammer who has obtained the phone number and other personal information of someone else calls a wireless carrier pretending to be the victim and requests that number be transferred to a new SIM card. If successful with the impersonation, which could include providing the birth date or the mother’s maiden name, the user can start logging into various services, like Twitter, and changing passwords.” After this has taken place scammers could potentially tap into bank accounts and create issues many people may fear. Some companies are requiring other versions of authenticators such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator rather than SMS for better security on their accounts. Although, some fear that this may not be “enough” to stop the rising issue. Some mobile companies are also being found responsible due to employees distributing account information to scammers in exchange for a pay-off.
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