Hackers hijack phone number, break into man’s Google account, then try to steal $25K

Identity theft via hacking or social engineering is a common problem these days, and the results can quickly spiral out of control, locking you out of the accounts you depend on permanently, as in the case of today’s horror story. A contributor over at ZDNet recently suffered what can only be called a total security meltdown in the space of a week when a hacker gained access to his Google account via a SIM-swap attack.

A SIM-swap attack, for the unfamiliar, is when an unauthorized individual ports a targeted phone number (usually tied to a two-factor authentication method attached to another account, the goal of the attack) to another SIM, surreptitiously redirecting that number to a new device. SIM-swap attacks often occur via social engineering, with carrier support agents performing the switch in the belief they’re operating under the instruction of the account holder. Together with other information, like credentials gathered via a phishing attack or exposed in previous…