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We’ve all been instructed to be alert for potential malware contaminating our devices. Infections often find their way to our computers, phones and tablets after clicking a dangerous link, downloading an attachment from an unknown email, or even downloading a malicious app from the Google Play Store.

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Generally, these attacks target your devices, but is it possible for hackers to also work their way into your phone’s SIM card?

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Unfortunately, the answer is yes, as evidenced by this sad story shared with us by the reader, Carol B.:

“My brother had a hacker that got a SIMS card from his Mobile phone service. He then hacked into all of his email accounts and changed the passwords. He proceeded to kill my brother and his wife’s SIMS cards on their phones, so that they wouldn’t get notifications from their credit card companies, banks etc. The hacker was able to hack into one of his banking accounts and had $1000 transferred using Zelle to an account. What can we do to protect something like this happening again?”

Why would a hacker want to hack into your SIM card?

To put it in plain terms, your SIM card carries all the information which allows you to connect with your larger network through calls, texts and emails.

It stores your mobile subscriber number, which helps authenticate and identify you on mobile devices. As a result, if someone is successful in hacking into your SIM card, it gives them the power to:

Most hackers hope to access your SIM card to pull off any of these three fraudulent practices:

Once accessing your SIM card, hackers will use your information to try and trick your service provider into switching your phone number to a new SIM card and phone number, resulting in the owner’s number and information being erased. To do this, the original phone will need to be restarted to complete the transfer. This often requires the hackers to contact the original phone owner, posing as the service provider, to restart their phones.

In this instance, after accessing your SIM card, the hacker will clone all the information found on it copying the stolen data onto a new SIM card that they control. Once they succeed at this con, it allows the criminal to access all the original owner’s texts, calls and location data, which the hacker can view on their device.

Simjacker is spyware software, often sent to people via an SMS message, which if opened, will allow the hackers to read your messages, listen in on your calls and track your location. This is achieved mainly through software called S@T Browser, a basic web browser of sorts, primarily used by service providers to interact with web applications. While S@T Browser is installed on many devices that leave people vulnerable to Simjacker, it is also rarely used, and these attacks are most common in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe

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While we have now established that your SIM card can be hacked, and is very dangerous should it potentially happen, it is far less common than hackers accessing your devices. This is primarily because it is much less easy for criminal hackers to access your SIM card and go unnoticed. For that matter, hackers can do many things they could do by hijacking your SIM card, such as using your identity to make calls and texts. 

It’s also worth noting, back in late 2022, Apple no longer uses physical SIM cards in any of their newly launched products. Instead, they are deploying electronic SIM cards known as an eSIM. Thankfully, eSIM cards are somewhat less vulnerable to hackers when it comes to the threat of SIM swapping. Crooks and scammers can no longer claim their SIM card is lost. However, like all technology, it is still sadly possible to hack an eSIM card. With that in mind, it’s important to be on the lookout for any tell-tale signs that your SIM card may have been hacked – period.

ARE HACKERS IN YOUR PHONE? HERE’S HOW TO FIND OUT

As mentioned above, there is some cold comfort that can be taken in the fact that it is extremely easy to determine whether your SIM card has been hacked.

Phone numbers can only be associated with one SIM card, so if you are the victim of SIM cloning or swapping, you won’t receive any new calls or texts. Have a friend call or text you, and if the call or text comes through, then there is no possibility that your SIM card has been successfully cloned or swapped.

When checking your phone bill and you see several calls or texts made to numbers you don’t recognize, that leaves open a very real possibility that your SIM card has been hacked. Immediately contact your service provider to get more information regarding these calls.

If you get a random text message telling you to restart your device, seeming to be from your service provider, it is more than likely a scam artist. They will not be able to complete cloning or swapping your SIM card unless you restart your device. Service providers will never contact you instructing you to restart your device, so if you do get such a message, best to call them immediately.

One of the most guaranteed ways of determining if your SIM card has been compromised is if your phone shows up in a location different from yours while using a tracking app such as “Find My”. However, many hackers will attempt to disable this service as a means of avoiding detection.

Many apps and websites, particularly those for banks or others containing vulnerable information, tend to use two-factor verification. This is a way of circumventing hackers who may have accessed your login information, by sending you a text or email with a verification code. If your SIM card is hacked, then they will be able to receive that code, giving them the ability to log in and change your username and password.

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The chances of your SIM card being hijacked are relatively low. There are, nonetheless, steps you can take to make avoid this happening to you.

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The biggest security precaution you can place on your SIM card is enabling a SIM card lock, requiring a PIN code for anyone trying to access your SIM card.

To enable a SIM card lock on an Android

To enable a SIM card Lock on an iPhone

Important note: Always be sure that you know your current PIN before activating the lock.

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My biggest desire is to educate and inform you about the increased real threat to each of our connected devices and encourage you to use strong antivirus security protection on everything in your life connected to the rest of the world. 

See my expert review of the best antivirus protection for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices by searching ‘Best Antivirus’ at CyberGuy.com by clicking the magnifying glass icon at the top of my website. 

Related: Free antivirus: should you use it?

For more of my Security tips, head over to CyberGuy.com and be sure to subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by clicking the “Free newsletter” link at the top of my website.

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A cellphone analysis and partial fingerprint on a cellphone have led to the arrest of a Fort Wayne man on murder and other charges in the fatal stabbings of a couple in 2017.

Dustin Neal, 35, was charged Friday with two counts each of murder, felony murder and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury in the June 2017 slayings of 25 year-old Noele Trice and 29-year-old Bryan Lash.

The couple was found dead the morning after hosting a party that Neal attended, court documents said.

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Police and an FBI agent conducted an analysis of Neal’s cellphone in October that showed it pinged off a cell site near the victims’ home on the morning of the slayings despite his contention he had not returned to the home after leaving the party, documents said.

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A partial print found on Trice’s cellphone also led investigators to Neal, documents said.

A new witness told police in October that Neal was bragging about committing the murders, saying he had broke into the couple’s home to steal marijuana but Lash had woke up during the burglary.

Court documents don’t show an attorney for Neal who might comment on the allegations against him.

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Authorities have identified two men who died after being shot when a man fired a gun in celebration during a fireworks display at a New Year’s party in western Michigan.

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that the shooting killed David Reed, 35, of Waverly Township and Jason McCreary, 40, of Sutter Creek, California.

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Reed, who was shot in the back, died at a hospital and McCreary, who was shot in the head, died at the scene, deputies said.

The shooting happened around 12:05 a.m. Sunday, deputies said.

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A 62-year-old man was arrested on multiple counts of reckless discharge of a firearm causing death, WWMT-TV reported.

Van Buren County is located in southwestern Michigan, where a portion of the county abuts Lake Michigan.

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A police officer conducting surveillance escaped injury Monday after a man armed with a rifle fired into an unmarked police car, authorities said.

The Michigan State Police Homicide Task Force and the department’s Special Investigation Section detectives are investigating the shooting, which occurred about 7:35 a.m., when the undercover Dearborn officer was approached by the man with the rifle.

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“The suspect shot into the unmarked police vehicle and ran,” a Michigan State Police public information officer said on Twitter.

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“The officer was able to leave the scene and was not hurt. Currently, detectives have two suspects in custody and are in the process of interviewing them,” tweets said.

Last September, two Detroit residents were charged after a Michigan state trooper was shot while conducting surveillance with other members of a narcotics unit.

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CNN
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Australia’s top medical officer advised the government against imposing any restrictions on travelers coming from China, a day before the health minister announced new testing requirements, internal documents show.

China’s Covid cases are surging after Beijing abandoned its costly zero-Covid strategy, prompting a number of countries to impose restrictions on travelers coming from China and its territories.

Australia was among them, though a letter published on the government website on Tuesday, written by the country’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, reveals that the decision was made despite his advice that it wasn’t necessary.

“Based on available information, and in the absence of a specific threat from a variant with increased pathogenicity and immune escape, I do not believe that there is sufficient public health rationale to impose any restriction or additional requirements on travelers from China,” Kelly wrote in the letter dated December 31.

In the letter, Kelly acknowledged widespread concern about the limited information being released by China about its outbreak, “which has highlighted some gaps in global surveillance.”

However, he added that he had consulted with health officers from other parts of the country and New Zealand, and found a “strong consensus” that targeted travel restrictions would be “inconsistent with the current national approach to the management of Covid-19 and disproportionate to the risk.”

Regardless, the following day Australian Health Minister Mark Butler announced that from Thursday, travelers coming from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao must show proof of a negative Covid test taken within 48 hours of their departure. At the time, he said the new measures were due to the “lack of comprehensive information” about China’s Covid situation and genomic sequencing data.

After criticism that the government was ignoring medical advice, Butler told local radio on Tuesday that it was acting “out of an abundance of caution,” and that the measures were limited to arrivals from China because, until recently, it was the only “significant country” in the world that hadn’t opened up.

Australia is among more than a dozen countries that have imposed restrictions on travelers from China and its territories in the past week. Most, including the US, UK, and other parts of Europe and Asia, are requiring either a pre-departure test or testing on arrival, with arrivals found positive needing to quarantine.

Morocco took the extra step of outright banning all travelers from China, regardless of nationality. The ban goes into effect on Tuesday, with no information on when it will be lifted or whether it applies to people traveling from Hong Kong and Macao, China’s two special administrative regions.

The measures have been controversial, with health experts and scientists around the world warning that these targeted restrictions are largely ineffective at preventing the spread of Covid or new variants – and that they could instead stoke racism and xenophobia.

On Tuesday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning warned that China would take countermeasures against the travel restrictions.

“Some countries have adopted entry restrictions targeting only China, which lack scientific basis, and some excessive practices are even more unacceptable,” she said, adding: “We are firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate epidemic prevention and control measures for political purposes, and will take corresponding countermeasures for different situations in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.”

CNN report: The world’s harshest quarantine is no more

Several experts told CNN there is currently no evidence of a new variant emerging from China, and that even if one were to arise, it would likely spread across the world anyway. Testing requirements don’t catch all cases, especially with variants that have a shorter incubation period.

A country’s best defense was to make sure its own population was well protected through domestic policy, such as widespread vaccinations and basic public health measures, said Karen Grepin, an associate professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong.

“In a lot of parts of the world, the pandemic feels like it’s over … but at the end of the day, (these measures) are ultimately what prevents the transmission of the virus,” she said, adding that there’s “no point in worrying about imported cases, if you’re not going to do anything about domestic cases.”

“If countries are at the point where they think those things are no longer important, because for example they’ve developed so much population immunity, then why care about a couple of new cases coming in from China?”

In his letter, Kelly argued that Australia’s domestic situation was strong enough to avoid imposing restrictions, pointing to the country’s “strong surveillance mechanisms” and high immunity levels – due to both vaccination and previous infection.

Instead of travel restrictions, he proposed several alternative measures including an aircraft wastewater testing program and voluntary sampling of incoming travelers on arrival.

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