Stressful Day

So I’m writing this post partially as a cautionary tale and partially as a thank you to this sub.

Last night I was the victim of a sim swap. The hacker somehow had my phone number canceled with my carrier and exported elsewhere. The hacker then used the number to reset the password on my primary email account. Then he recovered a drop box account and a couple Gmail accounts, all within about 15 minutes.

I found out about the attack at around 6 am. What a horrible feeling. Pit in your stomach panic. What had happened to my crypto accounts and bank account?

I hit the laptop and quickly confirmed that all the accounts were secure. No attempts at entry had been made and all funds were accounted for. I then called my email provider and phone company and sorted out the issues with control of my accounts.

What saved me from financial ruin? Ledger’s lousy OpSec and the insights on security I read on this sub. Last year someone stole Ledger’s entire customer database. My info was released in that hack and I strongly suspect it’s what caused the attack today.

Thankfully I was aware of the hack, primarily because of this sub, and had taken measures recommended here to improve my OpSec:

• No SMS 2FA; I now use Authenticator apps exclusively
• I set up a new email address with a different provider that’s used exclusively for crypto.
• Changed all my passwords to at least 14 characters.

These measures didn’t prevent a successful sim swap attack, but they did keep the situation from becoming a financial calamity. Instead it was just a horrendous pain in the ass. Learning about security issues on this sub ended up being worth more to me than anything else. If I had lost all my crypto, I’d be absolutely beside myself. So thanks guys, and I encourage everyone to evaluate their OpSec and make whatever upgrades you can. One day it could be too late.