Yes, you heard that right. You need to be careful while altering your mobile number because your preceding mobile number could pose massive cybersecurity issues to you. The new research has suggested the fact that your old phone number could become one of the causes of a major hack.
Everybody knows that once you alter your contact number, the sim card companies begin the recycling procedure, and your old number gets assigned to a fresh customer and a new phone. The sim card companies also termed as carriers, follow this procedure to refrain from creating a hypothetical future termed “number exhaustion” into becoming a reality. The term “number exhaustion” has been given to a hypothetical scenario, in which all the possible numbers that could get assigned to a fresh customer have already been used before, and thus there are no ten-digit numbers to assign to anyone.
However, new research and study have concluded a very dire situation, in which this very process of recycling could land old users of the mobile numbers exposed to very serious privacy, data theft, and security issues. First of all, you should know that the research was conducted by a group of reliable researchers working at Princeton University. We already know from previous reports and individual encounters that sometimes, new numbers provide an opportunity to access and exploit the data and privacy of the previous user of the contact number.
One of the primary reasons for this cause is the fact that, more often than not, new users will continue to use personalized ads and updates, which are supposedly meant for the old users, and of course, the old user will be unaware of this fact. This might be both irritating and concerning problems to both users, as the studies have suggested a case in which the new users would often get phone calls and messages regarding spa appointments and counseling sessions. It might seem a benign problem, but as anyone can guess, a contact number can give a new user a lot of access to confidential and security information as well.
You might have used your phone number as a credential for the two-factor authentication process; now, users make the mistake of overlooking the fact that they should update the information from certain apps from time to time, and when they fail to do that, the one-time-password for new access accidentally reaches the new owner, who might choose to do whatever he wishes. Imagine what all can go wrong. There is a possibility that can make you lose all of your bank accounts, social media accounts, emails, and customer access to other useful apps within days of losing your phone number. Hence, it is imperative that you should update your phone number on all the synced accounts and accesses to avoid any inconvenience or fraud. The research done by Princeton University has also suggested the fact that your mobile number can also be used by the new user to accumulate other information about you, of course, by visiting some “people search sites” such as “Intelius” or “BeenVerified.”
The worst case that can happen to a careless or negligent user is that his or her mobile number may fall into the hands of an individual who already has an existing criminal record. And, it is needless to say what kind of nefarious purposes he may be able to achieve with your phone number. He could know your relatives, your address, your bank account details, and other stuff and may use it to satisfy his own malicious intentions.
The researchers have suggested that a notification has been issued to Verizon, T-mobile, and other mobile carriers and have requested them to make their documentation stronger and make the cyber attacks from old phone numbers more inaccessible. It seems like that the carriers are already aware of this and are looking for ways to stop it or at least inform the user about the data breach.
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