T-Mobile Coughed Up $33 Million in SIM Swap Lawsuit

California law firm Greenberg Glusker says it secured a $33 million arbitration award against T-Mobile over the wireless carrier’s mishaps related to a SIM swap attack.

A SIM swap (or SIM swapping) attack occurs when threat actors contact the victim’s wireless carrier and convince its employees to transfer the victim’s phone number to a SIM card under the threat actor’s control.

Given that phone numbers are typically associated with various online accounts, control over a phone number can allow threat actors to change the login information for those accounts and take them over.

According to Greenberg Glusker, the SIM swap incident that was the subject of the legal battle with T-Mobile was caused by numerous security failures at the wireless carrier, and the ruling clearly shows that telecom providers need to improve their customer protections.

Greenberg Glusker notes that the ruling was kept under wraps since ...