Sim-swapping
I was pretty sure I was immune to that, since my mobe is Luxembourg-based and Luxembourg is a stickler for administrative procedure. Someone calls to say their phone is lost ? No problem sir, what is the number ? There, the phone is blocked. You can now go buy a new one. Sorry ? Transfer to a new sim ? Sorry sir, your phone is lost, go buy a new one. You have another one ? Good for you, have a nice day.
At least, that is how I imagined things, right up until this article made me do a bit of googling and I found this article from no less than Europol.
So it would appear that it could eventually happen to me after all.
Except that, when I check out the particulars, first the miscreant has to get my private information. I'm fairly sure that not being on any social media is going to vastly reduce my possible exposure to unsecured cloud repositories or other such data breach shenanigans. Malicious apps simply do not get to my PC (thank you NoScript) and I don't surf with my mobe. As for the sites where I have activated 2FA, I can count them on the fingers of one hand - none of them are well-known to the hackers and they have no idea I'm subscribed there.
So let's imagine, for the sake of it, that a data breach has occured and, for some strange reason, some of my personal details are contained within. My phone number should not be in there but, let's imagine it is. Going to step 2, let's imagine that the miscreant actually did persuade my mobile operator to enact the swap (which I still have trouble to believe happening in Luxembourg).
Step 3 says that the miscreant can now get my texts and calls, which is perfectly reasonable, and to my online banking. BZZZZZZT ! Fail. I have never used my mobe for online banking - I'm not stupid. The only apps I have installed on my mobe are Brave, to have rapid Internet access, a voice recorder and the three security authenticator apps I need to log in online with my customers.
No banking details in sight.
Now I will admit that I'm wondering about my GMail account, but since I only use it sparingly on my mobe, maybe the problems will be minimal. Although I would really like to know how the miscreant can get all the details from a virtual swap. Do mobile operators have a complete copy of the contents of my phone sim ?
That would be a breach of privacy, wouldn't it ?