The FCC adopted new rules in a 5-0 vote on Thursday to protect consumers against scams that aim to take over their cell phone accounts. Officials say the scams wreak havoc on people’s financial and digital lives without actually touching their cell phones.
Officials say the rules will help protect consumers from scammers who target data and personal information by covertly swapping Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to a new device or porting phone numbers to a new carrier. Commissioners say the updated rules will help protect consumers from SIM swapping scams and port-out fraud while maintaining their freedom to choose their preferred device and carrier.
The Report and Order (R&O) revises the FCC’s Customer Proprietary Network Information and Local Number Portability rules to require wireless providers to adopt secure methods of authenticating a customer before redirecting a customer’s phone number to a new device or provider. The new rules require wireless providers to immediately notify customers whenever a SIM change or port-out request is made on customers’ accounts and take additional steps to protect customers from SIM swap and port-out fraud.
Carriers would need to adopt processes to handle failed SIM authentication attempts, track the effectiveness of their authentication measures and what measures they use.
In the R&O, “we acknowledge two things that the record makes very clear, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “First, many providers already do have certain protective measures in place that may fulfill some of these new requirements. And second, that the threat landscape is rapidly evolving. Providers will need flexibility to adopt and adapt their security methods accordingly.”
Commissioner Nathan Simington called the two scams “serious” for consumers. “I very much support this order that will require mobile carriers to implement reasonable controls to prevent such attacks. I’m especially happy that this order adopts a reasonable standard for the security measures that carriers are required to take. This would prevent the rules from fixing into stone current best practices which are likely to be superseded.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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