I had to go look for how people might be able to hijack the SMS system. This led to [0], which was discussed on HN about three months ago [1].
Interesting, yet an attacker would have to spend some amount of money per attempt. Unless they are targeting high value individuals this does not seem a likely threat for the average person.
Other methods exist, such as SIM-jacking [2]. I wish the article included a list of phones that might be vulnerable to this attack. Are iPhone's vulnerable?
And yet, while "free" this still requires a massive automated net to be deployed in order to gain some information and then socially engineer your way into gaining access to sites and services that might be of value.
I guess my question is: How common are these attacks? What's the scale of the activity? I have never heard of anyone in my immediate and even extended circles having any such issues. OK, I have indoctrinated most of my family into not clicking links in SMS messages and most of my extended circles are technically savvy. What does this look like in the general population?
Interesting, yet an attacker would have to spend some amount of money per attempt. Unless they are targeting high value individuals this does not seem a likely threat for the average person.
Other methods exist, such as SIM-jacking [2]. I wish the article included a list of phones that might be vulnerable to this attack. Are iPhone's vulnerable?
And yet, while "free" this still requires a massive automated net to be deployed in order to gain some information and then socially engineer your way into gaining access to sites and services that might be of value.
I guess my question is: How common are these attacks? What's the scale of the activity? I have never heard of anyone in my immediate and even extended circles having any such issues. OK, I have indoctrinated most of my family into not clicking links in SMS messages and most of my extended circles are technically savvy. What does this look like in the general population?
[0] https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3g8wb/hacker-got-my-texts-1... [1] https://hackertimes.com/item?id=26468892 [2] https://medium.com/auedbaki/how-hackers-hack-phone-using-sms...