This week, a stunning story from Vice revealed how easy it is for an attacker to steal your text messages and do evil things with them. Let me illustrate how easy it is:
- Pay a trivial sum of money.
- Convince a VoIP wholesaler that they’re a reseller.
- Sign a form swearing that they’re allowed to route messages to your number to another number.
- Pwnage
Why is this important? It’s important because a lot of people use text messages as a means to do two-factor or multi-factor authentication for websites and other online accounts. Which means that if someone has access to your text messages, they have access to any account that uses text messages for authentication.
While that sounds scary, and it should sound scary, there are ways to protect yourself from this. You should be using a dedicated two-factor authentication app that requires physical access of your hardware—typically your phone—to finish the login process for an account. An example of this would be Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator which bypass text messages to deliver the codes required for two-factor or multi-factor authentication. It also means that the bad guys need physical access to your phone to try and break into your online accounts. Quite simply, that’s not going to happen.
But there’s one slight problem. What if the service that you need to use only use text messages for authentication? Then I guess you are kind of stuck. Sort of. You can use a service like this one to monitor if, or when, your phone number’s texts are routed elsewhere. And a really, really strong password helps too. Along with not using obvious answers for your security questions.
Do you have any other suggestions that can help all of us keep our online accounts safe? If you do, leave them in the comments and share your thoughts.
Exclusive Networks Rises To Pandemic Challenge With Strong FY2020 Performance
Posted in Commentary with tags Exclusive Networks on March 18, 2021 by itnerdExclusive Networks, the global trusted infrastructure specialist, today announced its 2020 financial results, showing strong growth achieved amid unprecedented worldwide trading conditions. The company continued its growth momentum with a notable 8% organic uplift in sales, together with the expansion of its global footprint and skills base through three strategic acquisitions. The year also saw Exclusive Networks’ further digitalisation of back-office operations and the launch of X-OD, its on-demand, subscription-based delivery platform for vendor solutions and professional services – both of which have contributed to a record year in revenues and operating income.
Other 2020 highlights include:
Exclusive Networks is the global trusted digital infrastructure specialist driving the transition to a totally trusted digital future for all people and organisations. Our distinctive approach to distribution gives partners more opportunity and more customer relevance. Our specialism is their strength – equipping them to capitalise on rapidly evolving technologies and transformative business models.
The Exclusive Networks story is a global one with a services-first ideology at its core, harnessing innovation and disruption to outstrip market growth. With 50+ offices across five continents and presence in over 100 countries, Exclusive Networks has a unique ‘local sale, global scale’ model, combining the extreme focus and value of local independents with the scale and service delivery of a single worldwide distribution powerhouse. More info is available at www.exclusive-networks.com
Leave a comment »