The Best of The Bad Crypto Podcast: Travis Gets Hacked - Episode #041

Published: Sept. 15, 2022, midnight

We're sharing our best shows from the last five years as Joel and Travis take a break from broadcasting new content for the crypto curious and the crypto serious. In 2017, Travis experienced a cell phone SIM hack perpetrated by security vulnerabilities at his wireless carrier, social engineering, and use of technology know-how to execute the nefarious hack.\xa0

Your cell phone number is more public and connected to more private, personal information than your social security number. To protect yourself from potential attacks, be sure to enable two-factor authentication on all of your email, banking, and social media accounts and store your cryptocurrency moonbags on cold storage wallets.\xa0

In Episode #633, we had guest Haseeb Awan of Efani share their unswappable SIM technology and encourage listeners to revisit that episode. We have a SPECIAL OFFER of one month of Efani phone service FREE to Bad Crypto Podcast listeners.\xa0 http://badco.in/633

FULL SHOW NOTES: http://badco.in/041

TIME STAMPS:

00:00 - Intro - Warning, explicit content as Travis expresses his feelings about getting hacked.\xa0

02:40 - Bad Crypto voicemails - we answer listeners\u2019 questions, but Do Your Own Research and Not Financial Advice

08:20 - Top News Stories, dated October 25, 2017

16:16 There are some ICOs that are not really that awesome. If they look like a shitcoin, and they smell like one, don\u2019t invest in it. Blockchain is going to be a major industry disrupter.\xa0

17:43 - James Altuchair, author of Cryptocurrency 101, says he thinks cryptocurrencies are the biggest innovation since the Internet. We are on the ground floor of an enormous trend that is going to change the world.\xa0

19:38 - Travis hypothesizes on the tokenization of natural resources.\xa0

23:22 - Feature story: Travis gets hacked

23:30 - Travis noticed his iPhone didn\u2019t have cell phone service, only WiFi. Alerts for an Apple ID passcode were popping up, followed by a text message from a T-Mobile representative.\xa0

24:45 - Skype call to T-Mobile for assistance. The hacker circumvented Travis\u2019 passcode and his PIN. Convinced the representative via social engineering to SIM swap Travis\u2019 account.\xa0

26:20 What\u2019s the resolution to this situation?\xa0

31:40 - Remove your cryptocurrency from exchanges to cold storage.\xa0

34:16 - Some vengeance was had; Travis found the hacker via the \u201cFind My iPhone\u201d device location connectivity on the hacker\u2019s phone.

35:49 - I was the Global Digital Strategist for Semantic for the Norton Brand. I know how to operate safely online and I did all the right things. The weakest link in my security aside from not having 2FA on my Apple ID and Gmail accounts, was the account representative at T-Mobile susceptible to human engineering.\xa0

37:12 - I would love to hear their CEO at T-Mobile to speak on this security issue. But here\u2019s the lesson, lock down your stuff, use two-factor authentication at all times.

37:46 - Would it be safe to say the FBI would be interested in looking at what this person did? I believe there\u2019s at least one felony count in what this person did.\xa0

38:17 - What if this person emails you and owns up to it, and has some sort of promise to never do this again? It would be nice to see somebody set straight before they were arrested.\xa0

38:36 - Go ahead and email us at badcryptopodcast@gmailcom; maybe if you show some remorse, all this evidence I have against you won\u2019t be shared to the authorities. All this bad karma comes back around to you, dude.\xa0

39:20 - If some of these people would just use their skills to do good in the world, imagine how much better off we would be.\xa0

40:00 - Lock down your social media accounts to a reasonable amount of security and data sharing with these companies. Turn on your 2FA for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.\xa0

40:22 - If you\u2019re in crypto and you're not securing things with 2FA, you\u2019re in for some heartache. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. One of the best solutions is to maybe actually get a burner phone and a pre-paid SIM card and you don\u2019t give that number to anyone and you use it solely for 2FA on that device.

41:50 - Outro

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DISCLAIMER:
Do your own due diligence and research. Joel Comm and Travis Wright are NOT FINANCIAL ADVISORS. We are sharing our journey with you as we learn more about this crazy little thing called cryptocurrency. We make NO RECOMMENDATIONS. Don't take anything we say as gospel. Do not come to our homes with pitchforks because you lost money by listening to us.

We only share with you what we are learning and what we are investing it. We will never "pump or dump" any cryptocurrencies. Take what we say with a grain of salt. You must research this stuff on your own! Just know that we will always strive for RADICAL TRANSPARENCY with any show associations.

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