[HN Gopher] Lawmakers Prod FCC to Act on SIM Swapping
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       Lawmakers Prod FCC to Act on SIM Swapping
        
       Author : mikece
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2020-01-09 20:04 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (krebsonsecurity.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (krebsonsecurity.com)
        
       | AmericanChopper wrote:
       | There's a lot of opportunity to tighten up controls around sim
       | swapping. But I'd be cautious about this idea being used to
       | introduce phone number registration legislation (outlawing burner
       | phones). Legislators have tried and failed to do this at least
       | two times that I know about. Legislatively, this could even be
       | achieved indirectly, by creating the correct liability
       | regulations for service providers.
        
         | im3w1l wrote:
         | Doesn't _creating liability_ typically cause a lot of undesired
         | side effects? Like poor and marginalized people being unable to
         | swap since they everyone knows people like that are up to no
         | good.
         | 
         | Seems better to mandate a reasonable process. Like if you have
         | connected your sim to your identity you prove your identity to
         | swap. And if you have not, then you can swap by physically
         | presenting the old sim.
        
           | AmericanChopper wrote:
           | Regulating in general causes a lot of unintended side
           | effects, but creating new liability is certainly one of the
           | more effective ways of generating them.
           | 
           | In this specific case (depending on how cynical you are), you
           | might see such a side effect as simply a potential unintended
           | consequence, or you might see it as a potential opportunity
           | for law makers to stealthily pass legislation/regulation they
           | have previously failed to pass.
           | 
           | There's no way to say that any changes will even come from
           | this letter at the moment. But if you think compulsory phone
           | number registration is a bad thing (and there's plenty of
           | reasons to be against it), then I'd suggest you pay attention
           | to how this issue develops, as it would be the perfect
           | opportunity to sneak it in.
        
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       (page generated 2020-01-09 23:00 UTC)