In a SIM clone attack, the hacker first gains physical access to your SIM card and then creates a copy of the original.

However, SIM cloning is more hands-on than the other option.

Many times, people try to put SIM swapping and SIM cloning under that same umbrella.

And you may not even know you're a target until it's too late. Once they have your SIM, they have control over your phone number. Hackers must convince a customer support agent that they are you. SIM card swapping is hard to protect against as it involves social engineering. This means they could have enough information to access your accounts, and could lock you out of those too. And secondly, the hacker now has control over phone calls, messages, and two-factor authentication requests sent to your phone number. First, your real SIM card will be deactivated and stop working. Then, they can steal your phone number and link it to their own device. If they are successful, the phone provider will send them the SIM. They'll say they want to upgrade to a new device, and therefore need a new SIM. They'll pretend to be you and ask for a replacement SIM card. In order to perform a SIM card swap, a hacker will first call up your phone provider. The technique uses trickery and human engineering, rather than technical vulnerabilities. This event raised awareness of how these attacks can be destructive. Hackers used a variation of this technique to take over Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's personal Twitter account in August 2019. The SIMalliance Toolbox Browser is a way of accessing the internet-essentially, it's a basic web browser that lets service providers interact with web applications like email.Īnother SIM card security issue you may have heard of is SIM card swapping. The vulnerability works by using a piece of software called Browser, which is part of the SIM Application Toolkit (STK) that many phone operators use on their SIM cards. If a user opens the message, hackers can use the code to spy on their calls and messages-and even track their location. This complex attack targets SIM cards by sending a piece of spyware-like code to a target device using an SMS message. In September 2019, security researchers at AdaptiveMobile Security announced they had discovered a new security vulnerability they called Simjacker. Here, we'll show you some ways hackers can use SIM cards to gain access to devices-along with providing advice on how to keep your SIM card safe. And since you're reading this, you probably already know that your smartphone's operating system needs regular updating to stop threats.īut surprisingly, a SIM card can also be a source of security vulnerabilities. With new online threats popping up everyday, you need stay in the know on new security loopholes.

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