SIM Hijacking and the Phone Number Ransom

CYBER

VICE

Tech News, News & Politics, Technology, News

4 • 645 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2018

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine if your phone suddenly stopped working. And then you couldn’t login to Facebook, Instagram, your email, or bank account. Your phone switches back on, and you get a call. On the other end of the line is a guy telling you he’s stolen your phone number, and is about to take all your money. This is a new type of hack called SIM hijacking, and there’s almost nothing you can do to stop it. In this first episode of CYBER, we hear audio from a real-life ransom attempt, and host Ben Makuch speaks to Motherboard reporter Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai about how it all works.

This episode was produced and edited by Sophie Kazis.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Tann, it's got the code it's going to launch.
0:11.0	It's a unit system.
0:13.0	I know this.
0:15.0	It's all the files of the whole park.
0:17.0	It tells her everything.
0:19.0	Sir, he's uploading the virus.
0:21.8	Eagle One.
0:22.6	The package is being delivered.
0:29.6	I'm Ben Makou, National Security Reporter with Vice,
0:33.3	and this is Cyber, a podcast from Motherboard about hacking.
0:37.2	Welcome to our very first episode.
0:39.3	A new 60 Minutes report reveals it may be much easier to hack into a personal cell phone than you might think.
0:45.3	So hacking, hackers, the cyber, cyber war, the internets.
0:51.3	This stuff gets complicated really fast.
0:53.3	So it's no wonder a lot of people don't know what it is or how it all works.
0:57.8	But on this episode, we're going to break down a type of hacking that could affect anyone.
1:14.5	No, this isn't Sony getting owned, or somebody selling NSA hacking tools.
1:16.1	It's less talked about.
1:17.4	Smaller scale.
1:18.4	More personal.
1:20.1	This is about your phone.
1:23.5	Imagine if you woke up to this phone call.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from VICE, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of VICE and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.