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https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/why-using-sms-authentication-for-2fa-is-not-secure/ https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/why-using-sms-authenti... SMS i
by jillesvangurp 3y ago
https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/why-using-sms-authentication-for-2fa-is-not-secure/ https://securityboulevard.com/2021/12/why-using-sms-authenti...
SMS is an anti feature at this point. This just moves the problem. Arguably email is actually better than SMS and that's not saying much. It's the difference between getting stabbed and shot.
What's the most common thing that people have stolen: wallets and phones. Lots of people have cheap phones, pre-paid sims, or worse. Tying your identity to some phone number that should be treated as temporary only to get locked out of your account some years later is just not great.
Here's a list of reasons people change phone numbers:
- they have a prepaid number and they switch to a different provider
- they travel and use a different sim while traveling
- they change job and lose access to their employer provided phone
- they change operator and the operator declines to take over the old number (happened to me in Germany)
- their phone number ends up on some list of scammers and to get out of the non stop spam by simply getting another number
- manishsharan 3y agoI discovered another reason to avoid SMS OTP: I am currently visiting India and I have put my phone in Airplane mode because my Canadian phone company , Rogers,charges $15 per day for roaming and it is simply cheaper to buy an Indian SIM card and use it on an old phone to act as a wifi hotspot for my actual phone. So while my phone is in Airplane mode, I am unable to use my RBC Visa or MasterCard for any online purchases in India as there is no way for me to get the SMS OTP without paying Rogers the CA$15 .
- wbkang 3y agoSMS OTP sucks but this isn't it. Receiving text abroad is free with almost all carriers including Rogers.
- jhugo 3y agoSurely you can just turn off data roaming…
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- softveda 3y agoThat is very high. Australian providers offer free incoming SMS even when roaming internationally. The charge is only for data which you can disable. Vodafone Australia has $5/day roaming.
- paulddraper 3y agoIf my SMS is compromised, it's one thousand times easier to shut it down and recover than if my email is compromised. ^ Right?