'Terrifying' phone porting scam stealing millions but cybersecurity experts say it's unavoidable
'Terrifying' phone porting scam stealing millions but cybersecurity experts say it's unavoidable
Claire Harrison says she's still recovering from losing her identity and tens of thousands of dollars by mobile porting fraud, where scammers port your mobile number to another device.
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It's funny in a sad way that 2FA was supposed to be real secure but like all other security, the human element is the biggest weak point, and the custodians of it (telcos) are asleep behind the wheel.
2FA works. It is supposed to be something you know (password) and something you control (like a secure hardware key or app). The problem is people don't control their phone numbers, the telcos do.
It's worth noting that 2FA is still a security improvement. Using SMS for 2FA doesn't introduce any vulnerabilities compared to no 2FA. It's just not nearly as good as doing 2FA using a TOTP app or dongle. Or using hardware security tokens like FIDO2.
Unless the "2FA" channel is what they use to verify password resets.
Sure, but that's separate from 2FA and is pretty common even in places that don't offer any 2FA.