- The wireless account block is now available for AT&T consumers and commercial users
- Free feature that can be alternated in the Myat & T application
- The characteristic avoids similar exchange and similar attacks
AT&T has introduced a new feature to protect consumer accounts and businesses from SIM exchange attacks.
The wireless account lock may disable several key changes in the account, a key part of the SIM exchange, which can give the attackers the control of the telephone number of a victim and allows them to intercept codes of authentication application of two factors based on SMS.
“The blockade forces an additional step before important changes in the account can be made,” AT&T said about the new tool. “It prevents anyone from buying a device on the account, for example, or performing a SIM exchange, moving a telephone number to a SIM on a different device.”
Malicious experts and deceived employees
The function is now available in the Myat & T application for postpaid consumption wireless accounts. There, users can activate or deactivate it, add an additional step before they can update a device, change a SIM card or an ESIM card, start a telephone number transfer, add a new line, change billing information, change authorized users or change phone numbers.
For commercial users, there is the blockade of the commercial account and a prepaid wireless account block with similar functions. For companies, account administrators can find the lock switch wherever they access the online account.
The adversaries generally achieve SIM exchange attacks by deceiving or bribing to the employees of mobile carriers, or using stolen personal data to impersonate the victim and convince the carrier to transfer the number to a SIM card they control.
Once successful, the attacker can restore passwords and take charge of confidential accounts such as email, banking or cryptographic wallets.
Although it may sound crazy, these types of attacks occur all the time: more recently, Bitdefender reported that a student’s benefit at the Société Générara Bank was arrested under suspicion of helping Sim’s exchange scams to defraud 50 clients.
Through Macrumores
