In recent years, a technique that has gained considerable popularity among criminals is SIM Swapping , which consists of generating a duplicate of a user’s SIM. With this, an attacker can carry out all kinds of malicious activities, from subscribing to payment numbers with the phone, to receiving two-step verification SMS and stealing our accounts and even being able to carry out banking transactions if data has been stolen by phishing. Fortunately, Orange has launched a system that will prevent this.
Anyone who has access to our personal data can make a call to an operator and perform SIM spoofing. This type of spoofing attack can be carried out simply by filling in personal information in a fake email or website.
SIM Swap: Orange’s new protection service
The scam is usually carried out in a short space of time, where the user or victim barely has time to react because the phone is left without service and this can be attributed to a simple technical failure that the operator is suffering. The coverage disappears and the SIM is no longer operational. Attackers usually duplicate SIMs by phone by contacting the operator, or even by going to physical Orange stores with a false ID.
For this reason, Orange has launched the SIM Swap service , which aims to prevent this type of SIM duplication attacks , although its name may seem otherwise (would SIM Swap Protect have been better?). When someone tries to make a duplicate SIM , various records remain on the network, which Orange uses to carry out a technical investigation with the bank of the actual owner of the card.
The bank checks, by order of Orange, if there is a fraudulent change
Thus, Orange provides the bank with the date on which the SIM was updated and the entity will be able to detect possible risk scenarios and use control mechanisms. The entity, yes, must have the detection system implemented.
Thanks to this, both parties will be able to know if it is a fraudulent duplicate generation . Orange states that with this it does not try to prevent a subscriber who has made an update on his SIM from carrying out transactions, but rather seeks to verify if a SIM replacement has been made for a customer of an entity X, the user really belongs to that entity and no fraud is taking place.
The SIM Swap service is available now for Orange and Amena subscribers. Its effectiveness has already been proven in other countries of the European Union, and has served to protect many users of the entities that already offer this service. It is possible that next year more entities and operators will be added, which will help to practically end one of the biggest security problems that we are facing today.
We also remember that it is important to know the ICC of the SIM card to protect yourself from this type of attack.
