An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: All of the major carriers made a significant change to how SMS messages are routed to prevent hackers being able to easily reroute a target’s texts, according to an announcement from Aerialink, a communications company that helps route text messages. The move comes after a Motherboard investigation in which a hacker, with minimal effort, paid $16 to reroute our text messages and then used that ability to break into a number of online accounts, including Postmates, WhatsApp, and Bumble, exposing a gaping hole in the country’s telecommunications infrastructure.
“The Number Registry has announced that wireless carriers will no longer be supporting SMS or MMS text enabling on their respective wireless numbers,” the March 25 announcement from Aerialink, reads. The announcement adds that the change is “industry-wide” and “affects all SMS providers in the mobile ecosystem.” “Be aware that Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T have reclaimed overwritten text-enabled wireless numbers industry-wide. As a result, any Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T wireless numbers which had been text-enabled as BYON no longer route messaging traffic through the Aerialink Gateway,” the announcement adds, referring to Bring Your Own Number.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot