The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced a proposal to fight the growing occurrence of SIM swapping and port-out attacks. And it looks like AT&T has quickly responded to the proposal by adding a one-time passcode security feature for its customers.
According to a new AT&T support article, the carrier will soon be requiring its customers to generate a one-time passcode to use when they want to port out their number. The feature, called ‘Number Transfer PIN’ is not entirely new, however. Verizon Wireless has even been using it since March 2020. But through this feature, customers have a secure one-time-use code that only they can generate.
If you are an existing customer and you wish to port out, you must either generate a code through your online account or the myAT&T app or dial *PORT from your current line. A code will then be provided to the carrier that you will be porting to, along with general account information.
One thing to note about this feature is that AT&T employees are unable to generate a code for a customer. This works to the advantage of the customer since it gets rid of risks for “inside jobs.”
The new feature replaces the current pre-configured PIN setup that the carrier is using. Instead, the new PINs are given at random and only generated once they are needed. This makes them more secure.
The support article says the new change will take place on October 18th.
Source: XDA Developers
