Be Careful When Sharing Your Cellphone Number
Cellphone numbers are slowly becoming personal identifiers – a role that social security numbers traditionally played. But cellphone numbers are often unprotected in an age of cybercrime and cyber negligence.
For decades, social security numbers could be used to find credit reports, addresses, dates of birth and more. Now, criminals have discovered that it is far easier to use a cellphone number to get all the data they want than a social security number.
A lot can be learned about a person through their social security number; finances, property ownership, criminal records and more, said Thomas Martin of Martin Investigative Services. This means many people don’t give their social security number because it can reveal so much.
"But now, where’s your identifier?" asked cybersecurity expert Shaun Murphy, CEO of sndr.com. "Well, it’s your social media profile. It’s your email. It’s your messaging application. And guess where all those things are? Your phone."
Many people often freely give away their cellphone number – the "number one gateway to your identity," Murphy said in a talk with Techtonics.
"Your entire life is on your phone," said Martin. "And someone could grab it out of your pocket very easily."
It could also allow people to access your bank account. "Everything that you do with your banking is tied to your cell number," Martin said. "So once I have your cell number, I can find out your banking." What is more, in the age of mobile banking, financial institutions offering these services are not obligated under any "rules or regulations to protect your cell number."
"The way to solve the problem,” according to Martin, "is to have two or three phones." One for receiving calls, and the other for everything else that we now use smartphones for.
But Murphy argues that people need to be more protective of their devices and smarter about what apps they download and who they share their phone number with.
