SIM Swapping

Definitions

1. An account takeover attack where a phone number is fraudulently transferred to an attacker-controlled SIM card. It shows up in application security, identity, infrastructure, or incident response work depending on the environment. Teams use the concept to prevent abuse, detect adversary activity earlier, or define stronger control boundaries during engineering, testing, and operations.

   In plain English: SIM Swapping is the practical security idea behind a control, weakness, or safeguard. It matters because it changes how attackers succeed or defenders reduce risk.

   Example: "During the review, the team focused on SIM Swapping after telemetry and testing showed it was the fastest way to reduce exposure, tighten controls, and close a realistic attack path before the next production release."

Related Terms

• Out-of-Band Authentication
• Time-Based One-Time Password
• Authentication Factor
• Hardware Key
• Hardware Token
• Multi-Factor
• One-Time Password
• Physical Token