https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7babx/the-fcc-wants-to-force-wireless-carries-to-finally-stop-sim-swapping

For years Motherboard has documented the rampant fraud made possible by SIM hijacking, or the act of covertly porting out a user’s phone number to a new device or carrier—without consumer awareness or approval. Now the FCC says it’s finally taking preliminary steps to reduce both the frequency of the attacks, and the account and identity theft that usually follows. According to the FCC announcement, the agency is launching a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to begin discussing the path forward. Note that this is just a proposal to discuss implementing new rules; any actual rule updates could still be a year or two away and require a majority commissioner vote. “The FCC has received numerous complaints from consumers who have suffered significant distress, inconvenience, and financial harm as a result of SIM swapping and port-out fraud,” the agency said. “In addition, recent data breaches have exposed customer information that could potentially make it easier to pull off these kinds of attacks.”

The FCC’s proposal would update existing Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) and Local Number Portability rules to require wireless carriers adopt secure methods of confirming the customer’s identity before porting out a customer’s phone number to a new device or carrier.