Markets Daily Explains: Sim Card Hacks

Markets Daily explains a low-tech method to steal your high tech tokens in a way even your grandpa could understand.

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ABOUT

In the pantheon of crypto hacks, “SIM jacking” is one of the worst. The hack, which is less a hack and more social engineering, is basically a form of identity theft, with the attacker swapping a victim's sim card remotely, usually with the help of your cell phone carrier, and then breaking into their email, crypto, bank accounts, basically all the stuff you definitely don’t want someone to break into. It's audacious but it’s also preventable with a little awareness. And the consequences can be dire, it’s also netted attackers tens of millions in loot over the past few years.

In this episode of CoinDesk Explains (from the Markets Daily team), Adam B. Levine and John Biggs explain the attack, what it could mean for you, how it works, and what you can do to prevent it in a way that even your grandpa could understand.

HOST

Adam B. Levine

Adam B. Levine joined CoinDesk in 2019 as the editor of its new audio and podcasts division. Previously, Adam founded the long-running Let's Talk Bitcoin! talk show with co-hosts Stephanie Murphy and Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

Finding early success with the show, Adam transformed the podcast's homepage into a full newsdesk and publishing platform, founding the LTB Network in January of 2014 to help broaden the conversation with new and different perspectives. In the Spring of that year, he would go on to launch the first and largest tokenized rewards program for creators and their audience. In what many have called an early influential version of "Steemit"; LTBCOIN, which was awarded to both content creators and members of the audience for participation was distributed until the LTBN was acquired by BTC, Inc. in January of 2017.

With the network launched and growing, in late 2014 Adam turned his attention to the practical challenges of administering the tokenized program and founded Tokenly, Inc. There, he led the development of early tokenized vending machines with Swapbot, tokenized identity solution Tokenpass, e-commerce with TokenMarkets.com and media with Token.fm. Adam owns some BTC, ETH and small positions in a number of other tokens.