Biggest Criminal Threat in Crypto in 2019?

While their data and findings sum up the biggest threats of the last 12 months, they've omitted the prevalence of SIM swapping in recent times.

"A typical scenario can look like this: an attacker arrives at a regional department of a communication provider - like a mobile operator - with forged documents that are supposed to prove a customer's valid identity. Or, the attacker simply gets in close contact with an employee of the department and receives a duplicate of a victim's SIM cards. The authentic SIM card in the victim's phone turns off at that moment, so all subsequent SMS communications and phone calls are redirected to the attacker's phone."

SIM swapping is not a new phenomenon, but given the technological advances of smartphones over the last decade, the information that can potentially be garnered by criminals using this method makes it a big threat to individuals and their privacy.

An in-depth report in November last year delved into the murky details of SIM swapping in the crypto community.

July 2018 marks the first time someone was arrested for SIM swapping in the crypto space, as California police arrested 20-year-old Joe Ortiz, who had allegedly hacked around 40 victims.

Ortiz and a group of still unidentified collaborators targeted users in the crypto space, hacking a number of victims at the Consensus conference in New York in May. The 20 year old pleaded guilty to theft amounting to $5 million and accepted a plea deal of 10 years in prison for his crimes at the end of January 2019 - in what authorities describe as the first conviction of a crime for SIM swapping.

Just a month later, in September 2018, 21-year-old hacker Nicholas Truglia was arrested for stealing $1 million worth of cryptocurrency by using a SIM swap to access the victim's account.

"Today my Office is putting the small handful of sophisticated 'SIM Swappers' out there on notice. We know what you're doing, we know how to find you, and we will hold you criminally accountable, no matter where you are. We're also asking wireless carriers to wake up to the new reality that by quickly porting SIMs - in order to ease new activations and provide speedy customer service - you are exposing unwitting, law-abiding customers to massive identity theft and fraud."

An United States investor, Michael Terpin, who fell prey to a SIM swap carried out by Truglia, made a move in August 2018 that would look to hold telecom service providers accountable for negligence that led to fraudulent SIM swaps.

The prevalence of SIM swapping and the amount of media coverage on the subject has made many people aware of the threat this poses to their privacy, data and financial assets.