Name: U.S. Carriers Fix SMS Routing Vulnerability That Let Hackers Hijack Texts
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U.S. Carriers Fix SMS Routing Vulnerability That Let Hackers Hijack Texts

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Thursday March 25, 2021 3:14 pm PDT by Major carriers in the U.S. like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&amp;T have made a change to how SMS messages are routed to put a stop to a security vulnerability that allowed hackers to reroute texts, reports .Carriers introduced the change after last week revealed how easy it is for hackers to reroute text messages and use the stolen information to break into social media accounts. The site paid a hacker $16 to reroute texts using the tools of a company called Sakari, which helps businesses with mass marketing.Sakari offered a text rerouting tool from a company called Bandwidth, which was supplied by another company called NetNumber, resulting in a confusing network of companies contributing to a vulnerability that left SMS texts open to hackers (Motherboard has on the process in its original article). The hacker hired by Motherboard was able to access Sakari's tools without any authentication or consent from the rerouting target, successfully getting texts from Motherboard's test phone.Sakari is meant to allow businesses to import their own phone number for sending mass texts, which means a business is able to add a phone number to send and receive texts through the Sakari platform. Hackers could abuse this tool by importing a phone number of a victim to get access to the person's text messages.Aerialink, a communications company that helps route text messages, said that wireless carriers are no longer supporting SMS or MMS text enabling on wireless numbers, something that "affects all SMS providers in the mobile ecosystem." This will prevent the hack demonstrated by Motherboard last week from working.It is not clear if this text rerouting method was widely used by hackers, but it was easier to pull off than other smartphone hacking methods like SIM swapping. A Security Research Labs researcher said that he had not seen it before, while another researcher said it was "absolutely" in use.[ ]Now they need to stop robo calls from false local numbers. :cool:Score: 33 Votes ( | )I wish I can disable SMS 2FA across the board. Many financial institutions require it.Score: 17 Votes ( | )I try not to use SMS. It’s either iMessage or Signal for me. more people need to realize how utterly open and non private normal texting isScore: 17 Votes ( | )This is the kind of thing where you're reading the article and asking yourself: - Why was this possible in the first place?? - If the carriers were able to prevent this from happening, why weren't they already doing so????!!?!11I swear, our security infrastructure is so fragile. It's only a matter of time before something really, really bad happens.Score: 15 Votes ( | )Stop the ROBO/TELE-Markeing calls please.Score: 13 Votes ( | )I wish I can disable SMS 2FA across the board. Many financial institutions require it.Yep. It's a complete joke that you can't secure the most important accounts properly. I'm now using a Google Voice number for 2FA in those cases (no SIM swapping or number porting possible). But they should really offer more secure methods.Score: 6 Votes ( | )Friday January 7, 2022 1:59 am PST by A recurring iOS bug that makes Apple's Messages app send read receipts despite the setting being disabled appears to be on the upswing again, based on reports from users running iOS 15. In iOS, with read receipts enabled (Settings -&gt; Messages -&gt; Send Read Receipts), the "Delivered" text that a person sees under an iMessage they have sent you turns to "Read" when you've viewed it in the... • Wednesday February 2, 2022 4:21 am PST by WhatsApp's plan to bring iMessage-style message reactions to the massively popular chat platform appears to be entering its final stages, based on new screenshots shared by WABetaInfo. WhatsApp has been working on message reactions – or "Tapbacks" in Apple Messages parlance – for some time, with evidence of their development first coming to light last summer. The feature gives... • Wednesday December 29, 2021 10:15 am PST by Back in August, T-Mobile suffered a massive data breach impacting more than 50 million current, former, and prospective T-Mobile users, and now the cellular company is dealing with another smaller data breach incident. Reports yesterday suggested that T-Mobile was aware of unauthorized activity affecting some customer accounts, and now, T-Mobile has confirmed that those reports were due to... • Monday January 10, 2022 3:24 pm PST by Google for the last several years has been pushing a new communications protocol called Rich Communication Services, or RCS, which is designed to replace the current SMS standard. RCS offers support for higher resolution photos and videos, audio messages, bigger file size, improved encryption, and more. For the last few months, Google's senior vice president of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer,... • Friday September 24, 2021 10:42 am PDT by In 2019, Apple opened its Security Bounty Program to the public, offering payouts up to $1 million to researchers who share critical iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or watchOS security vulnerabilities with Apple, including the techniques used to exploit them. The program is designed to help Apple keep its software platforms as safe as possible. In the time since, reports have surfaced indicating... • Monday January 10, 2022 9:17 am PST by Microsoft's 365 Defender Research Team this morning published details on a new "Powerdir" macOS vulnerability that let an attacker bypass the Transparency, Consent, and Control technology to gain unauthorized access to protected data. Apple already addressed the CVE-2021-30970 vulnerability in the macOS Monterey 12.1 update that was released in December, so users who have updated to the... • Wednesday January 26, 2022 6:35 am PST by Last month, a tipster informed MacRumors that Apple had advised major U.S. carriers to prepare for the launch of eSIM-only smartphones by September 2022, suggesting at least one iPhone 14 model might lack a physical nano-SIM card tray. GlobalData analyst Emma Mohr-McClune today expressed her belief that Apple will not switch to eSIM-only iPhones entirely right away, but rather offer an... • Thursday March 17, 2022 2:50 pm PDT by Apple is streamlining its iPhone purchase process with the launch of the iPhone SE, and has introduced a new buying method that allows customers to purchase T-Mobile and AT&amp;T devices without inputting their current carrier information. As outlined by Bloomberg, customers typically need to provide their wireless phone number and social security number when making an iPhone purchase, a process ... • Friday September 9, 2022 9:20 am PDT by Garmin has reacted to Apple's new rugged Apple Watch Ultra, saying in a tweet following the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch event that it measures battery life in "months" and "not hours," promoting its latest Enduro 2 watch for athletes. While the Apple Watch Ultra has the longest battery life of any Apple Watch to date, with Apple promising up to 36 hours of normal use and up to 60 hours with... • Sunday September 11, 2022 7:53 am PDT by Apple is set to release iOS 16 this Monday, September 12, as a free update for the iPhone 8 and newer. iOS 16 includes plenty of new features, ranging from a customizable Lock Screen to the ability to temporarily edit or unsend iMessages. To install iOS 16 when the update is released, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap General → Software Update. After you update your iPhone to... • Friday September 9, 2022 1:37 pm PDT by With pre-orders for the iPhone 14 lineup now open, many iPhone customers will be weighing up whether or not now is the time to upgrade their device. The iPhone 14 models offer some substantial upgrades with Emergency SOS via satellite, Crash Detection, camera improvements, and more, but some customers will now be casting their mind forward to next year, when it may be a more appropriate time ... • Monday September 12, 2022 4:27 am PDT by The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have seen "bad" pre-order results, indicating that Apple's positioning of the two new standard models may have failed, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In his -14-first-weekend-online-pre-order-survey-110411040b5d"&gt;latest post on Medium, Kuo explained that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have seen "neutral" and "good" pre-order results... • Sunday September 11, 2022 2:00 am PDT by There are usually multiple features that Apple is not able to finish before the first official release of a major new version of iOS, and this year looks to be no different, with a total of nine iOS 16 features now confirmed to not be present in the first public version of the new OS. Last year, SharePlay, Digital IDs in the Wallet app, and Universal Control were among a large number of... • Sunday September 11, 2022 3:58 pm PDT by Apple does not advertise battery capacities for its new iPhone 14 lineup, but MacRumors has obtained this information from a Chinese regulatory database. Three out of four iPhone 14 models feature larger battery capacities compared to the iPhone 13 lineup, with the exception being the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is equipped with a slightly smaller battery compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max.... • Sunday September 11, 2022 1:20 pm PDT by Following its September event focused on new iPhone and Apple Watch models, Apple often holds another event in October focused on new iPad and Mac models, and this year will likely be no exception. October is still three weeks away, but we already have a good idea of the products that would likely be announced at an event next month. For the October event, rumors suggest that Apple plans to... • Saturday September 10, 2022 2:31 pm PDT by As was the case with iPhone 13 Pro models released last year, 4K ProRes video recording on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max still requires a model with at least 256GB of storage, according to Apple's tech specs for the devices. ProRes video recording is limited to 1080p at 30 frames per second on iPhone 14 Pro models with a 128GB storage capacity. To record ProRes video in 4K at 30... • When will iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 be released? Here's everything we know. Apple on July 20 released iOS 15.6 and iPadOS 15.6, bringing improvements to the live sports experience in the TV app and several bug fixes. How big of an upgrade are Apple's cheapest mainstream flagship phones? Apple's latest Pro phones replace the notch with an innovative "Dynamic Island," but what else is new compared to last year's models?• • • • • September 16Apple's new high-end iPhone models with Dynamic Island camera cutout, A16 chip, 48MP main camera, and more. Pre-orders available now. September 16Apple's latest mainstream iPhone models in two sizes with A15 chip, car crash detection, satellite connectivity, and more. Pre-order now ahead of iPhone 14 launch on September 16, iPhone 14 Plus on October 7. September 16New body temperature sensors, car crash detection, and more. Pre-order now. Mid–Late 2022?Updated AirPods Pro could see some design changes like elimination of the stem.• • • • • {other_blurb}

Thursday March 25, 2021 3:14 pm PDT by Major carriers in the U.S. like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&amp;T have made a change to how SMS messages are routed to put a stop to a security vulnerability that allowed hackers to reroute texts, reports .Carriers introduced the change after last week revealed how easy it is for hackers to reroute text messages and use the stolen information to break into social media accounts. The site paid a hacker $16 to reroute texts using the tools of a company called Sakari, which helps businesses with mass marketing.Sakari offered a text rerouting tool from a...

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U.S. Carriers Fix SMS Routing Vulnerability That Let Hackers Hijack Texts

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