Crypto investors should rethink giving out their phone numbers

Wireless store employees can assign your phone number to any device, with the right authorization. To confirm, they ask for pieces of private information like a birthday or a social security number. But those can be easily accessed for a price.

“Data is being bought, sold and traded on the dark web,” said Aaron Higbee, chief technology officer and co-founder of anti-phishing company Cofense. “If your phone number is of a sufficient age, you’re on a database somewhere.”

While one piece of data like a birthday might not be valuable on its own, combined with your phone number or address it can be used to answer those security questions from a wireless store employee.

After a criminal hacks into the person’s email or cryptocurrency account from their own devices, what’s known as “two-factor…