Mobile Safety – Cell # Private

A hacker with your phone number can be dangerous

Minimize sharing of your cell phone number.

It comes down to the public availability of your cell phone number. It’s very scary to realize that, with your cell phone number and the White Pages Premium web service (http://whitepages.com/ ), personal data is readily available, including current and past addresses, family names, other phone numbers (e.g. landlines) and property ownership information.

So, what to do? Share your phone number very carefully. only share your number as a basis for 2FA for web services I deem important, e.g. financial accounts, Consider setting up a second phone number for people and services you don’t entirely trust. For example, the Google Voice app lets you create a personal phone number that you can use for calls and texts. Per Google research, this can add significant additional security by blocking up to 100% of automated bots, 99% of bulk phishing attacks, and 66% of targeted attacks.

FOR FURTHER READING:
CyberGuardian: a SecureTheVillage Guide for Residents is available on Amazon.
A complete Security Checklist is available: https://www.nerdsiview.com/security-checklist-2/
References for Village Residents are available at SECURE THE VILLAGE: https://securethevillage.org/residents

Supplemental Articles:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/technology/personaltech/i-shared-my-phone-number-i-learned-i-shouldnt-have.html
https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-warns-about-attacks-that-bypass-multi-factor-authentication-mfa/