The National Communications Entity of Argentina (Enacom) has determined that mobile phone operators must improve their current security system and adopt biometric recognition to change a new SIM card.
This is done with the aim of preventing identity theft and hacking through a technique known as “SIM Swapping”.
Face verification to prevent phone number theft
The information was confirmed by the vice president of Enacom, Gustavo López, after a request by federal judge María Servini for the regulatory body to take action against hacking through “SIM Swapping”. This method consists of a hacker communicating with the operator and posing as the person who owns the original SIM to transfer the account to another SIM card and have complete control of the victim’s information and data.
Although more has begun to be said about this type of hacking in recent years, it has recently become publicly relevant in Argentina, after people with public relevance in the country, such as the Minister of Justice and Security of the City of Buenos Aires, Marcelo D’Alessandro, and the national deputy Diego Santilli, were listed as alleged victims of this technique.
In order to take precedence over these cases, in which the transfer of information to a new SIM is materialized with a simple registration, making use of basic personal data —and sometimes easy to obtain, in the case of public figures—, the new regulation that The Government of Argentina will demand that telephone companies have to add new verification steps focused on biometrics, specifically facial recognition, before enabling a new SIM card.
It is not yet known, for example, if telephone service companies will have to create their own identification databases or if they will have to use Renaper’s database, Argentina’s National Registry of Persons.
According to what the press in the South American country reports, local telephone companies have criticized the regulation. Its implementation will reportedly not be easy, especially when it comes to low-end phones that do not have facial biometric features.
In Argentina, it is estimated that some 300,000 complaints of computer scams are received each month, of which SIM Swapping represents only 0.05%. Even so, the potential scope of these attacks is very large, considering that today’s mobile number is the gateway to a wide range of digital services, including banking platforms and other sites that manage personal and sensitive information.
