If you’re a Verizon customer and have called them in the last six months, there’s a good chance your personal information was exposed in a recent breach.
The personal information of millions of Verizon customers was exposed online after a configuration oversight by third-party vendor Nice Systems. Chris Vickery of security firm UpGuard discovered the data (which included 14 million records of subscriber calls) in late June and privately told Verizon shortly after; “it took over a week before the data was eventually secured,” according to this ZDNet story, which broke the news.
According to the ZDNet story, the data was “downloadable by anyone with the easy-to-guess web address,” though Verizon claims no loss or theft of customer information occurred.
This Forbes.com story points out the truly alarming thing about the news:
“In addition to name, address, and phone number, some of the Verizon customer data included plain text PINs,” writes tech contributor Lee Matthews “With a customer’s other details and a PIN in hand, a criminal could, according to UpGuard, pull off a SIM card swap. That’s where fraudsters trick a wireless carrier into moving a customer’s phone number to a new SIM. Such scams have cost people thousands of dollars, and they can give an attacker access to sensitive online accounts that have been protected by two-factor authentication. If that second factor is a text message, the SIM card swap will redirect those messages to the criminal.”
The takeaway? If you’re a Verizon customer, you should change your account PIN pronto. You can call Verizon customer service at 800-922-0204 to do so, or visit a retail store, just be sure and bring your driver’s license or other government-issued identification with you.
Remember, when it comes time to pick a new PIN, choose wisely. Just like with passwords, you shouldn’t reuse them.
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