On October 8, Data Breach Today reported that Syniverse, a company that routes calls and text messages for 95% of the world’s top mobile carriers to the tune of 1 trillion (yes, trillion) messages a year, has disclosed it suffered a five-year breach. Likely, that breach has affected each of you reading this Privacy Peril.
So what can you do about this supply chain vendor breach? Actually, not a whole lot. However, we can learn one lesson about using two factor (or multi-factor) authentication to secure website logins. We have recommended — and still recommend — you take advantage of 2FA or MFA whenever available. Nevertheless, cell phones can be lost or stolen, and SIM swap fraud is a growing risk. Instead, strongly consider choosing a second security factor other than receipt of a texted code if one is available, such as by receiving a landline call.
Security is not always convenient. Indeed, inconvenience is often the source of security.
Check out our series, Privacy Perils, to learn what steps you can take to guard your personal and company data. For more information about this topic and other cyber security concerns, please contact a member of our Privacy & Data Security team.