While Fyde declined to hack into my accounts using the obtained information and my number, the company warned that there was plenty an attacker could do:Ī hacker could try to reset my password for an online account by answering security questions like “What is your mother’s maiden name?” or “Which of the previous addresses did you live at?”Īn attacker could use the personal information linked to my phone number to trick a customer service representative for my phone carrier into porting my number onto a new SIM card, thus hijacking my digits - a practice called SIM swapping.Ī hijacker with control of my phone number could then break into my accounts if I had mechanisms in place to receive a security code in a text message when logging in to an online account.Ī scammer could also use my hijacked phone number to trick members of my family into sharing their passwords or sending money.Ī scammer could also target my phone number with phishing texts and robocalls.Īn intruder could use knowledge of my phone number to call my voice mail inbox and try to crack the personal identification number to listen to my messages.Īn ad tech agency could add my number to a detailed profile about me, linked to other information about my identity and web-browsing activities. Information about a property I previously owned, including its square footage and the mortgage taken out on it. My past phone numbers, including the landline for my parents’ home.
#Phone numbers full
The full names of my mother, father, sister and aunt.
My current home address, its square footage, the cost of the property and the taxes I pay on it. He then did a thorough web search and followed a data trail - linking my name and address to information in other online background-checking tools and public records - to track down more details. Tezisci, the researcher, had to do was plug my number into White Pages Premium, an online database that charges $5 a month for access to public records. It took only an hour for my cellphone number to expose my life.Īll that Mr. But in most cases, the potential dangers and annoyances of handing out your number outweigh the benefits, as you will read below. In some situations, giving your digits to institutions like your bank provides an extra layer of security. “Because of collisions in names due to the massive number of people online today, a phone number is a stronger identifier.” “If you want to give out your number, you are taking additional risk that you might not be aware of,” said Sinan Eren, chief executive of Fyde. He and the other researchers at Fyde opted not to do so, since such attacks are illegal. Or he could have targeted my family and me with sophisticated phishing attacks. Tezisci could have used that information to try to answer security questions to break into my online accounts. Soon, he had a full dossier on me - including my name and birth date, my address, the property taxes I pay and the names of members of my family.įrom there, it could have easily gotten worse. He quickly plugged my cellphone number into a public records directory. I recently found this out firsthand when I asked Fyde, a mobile security firm in Palo Alto, Calif., to use my digits to demonstrate the potential risks of sharing a phone number.Įmre Tezisci, a security researcher at Fyde with a background in telecommunications, took on the task with gusto. In fact, your phone number may have now become an even stronger identifier than your full name.
#Phone numbers Offline
And it can lead to information from our offline worlds, including where we live and more. Since it is for a different purpose and also designed specifically for the SLFNHA communities, it is more cautious to ensure that there is an effective firewall maintained between the communities and the external hubs.At the same time, the string of digits has increasingly become connected to apps and online services that are hooked into our personal lives. It aligns with the Public Health Guidance on Travel Restrictions for Safe Pathways to and from Communities for Care document that was drafted July 2020. It was designed only with public health risk in mind, and as a way to support communities in decisions about essential and non-essential travel and the entry requirements they may put in place for their communities.
The SLFNHA colour system has 3 colours and was designed as a travel advisory for the risk associated with visiting key service hubs in our region. These stages were determined with public health, economic, and other factors in mind. The colours indicate what precautions need to be in place including limits on gathering sizes, what practices businesses and workplaces need in place, and what businesses and workplaces can be open. The province of Ontario has implemented a colour coded system with 5 colours corresponding with stages of reopening.
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