Should you have this enabled?

[Jammy97]

Hi all,

On Gmail, head to your settings. There's something called 'Dark web report,' which starts monitoring to get alerts and guidance if your info is found on the dark web.

Should this be enabled?

Should this be enabled? If not, why not?

Should you ever add your individual number as part of the backup/2-Step Verification for Gmail/Google?

Thank you.

[Jammy97]

Oh, okay, thanks for that information.

[arianwen27]

I have dark web report on. There's no harm or downside in it. It just lets you know if anything serious gets found.

As for having your phone number as part of recovery, if you are a normal person, yes. If you believe you might be targeted or are somehow valuable, I'd consider not.

For the major of people, it's perfectly fine. But if someone really wanted to and really put effort in, a sim swap attack would be a way to get into your account. But again, that needs lots of effort and resources to do

[Jammy97]

Thank you for this.

I think I'll turn it on in that case.

May I ask, do you have your phone number as part of the recovery process? Surely it is mandatory to have it added though? And aren't we all targets?

I just hope that never happens.

[arianwen27]

I do, though I also have advanced protection enabled on my account.

As for the whole target thing, you need to be really valuable to actually be worth it for someone. Usually it only happens to celebrities and people who hold bitcoin stuff.

The attack is basically just someone tricking your cell provider into transferring your phone number to a new sim card. Most phone providers are now aware of it and protect against it, but humans are humans and can make mistakes.

It's playing on the fact your phone provider is the one who is in control of your phone number. They can move it if they can be tricked into doing so. Super rare but it's a factor you can't really control. Where an authenticator app on your phone you have total control of.

I wouldn't worry about it.



Oh and put a pin on your sim. Again super rare but if someone steals your phone, they could take the sim out and use it to get reset codes. A sim pin prevents this

[lance78]

I have this turned on too

[MNas04]

I have it enabled long time ago. It does notify you if your email was on the dark web.

[Jammy97]

Thanks for the message, sorry for my delay.

How do I get advanced protection enabled?

So the average person does not need to worry?

How do I put a PIN on my SIM?

Thank you for your help. 😊

[Jammy97]

Thank you. So you have it enabled too.

[Jammy97]

Thank you for that information. So I definitely need it on.

[arianwen27]

Advanced protection is a google thing. It's sorta like a lockdown mode to super protect your google account. You need to own a physical passkey device such as a google titan key or a yubikey. It's way overkill for the average person but it's something that exists.

For the sim pin thing, I'd say everyone should. Settings, connections, sim manager, more sim settings, sim card security. Your sim will have a pin set by your cell provider, have a look online for what it is. Usually 1234 or 0000 or 1111. Don't guess, if you get it wrong 5 times your sim card is permanently locked. Once you've found what the pin is, press change sim card pin, enter the pin you found online, change it to something of your choice. When that's done, enable the "Lock sim card toggle". Now whenever you reboot your phone or remove the sim, that pin will popup before the sim can make calls and get texts.

If someone takes your phone and removes the sim, it becomes useless to them

Little warning, there might be a few pins that show up when you try to see what the default is. Do not guess 5 times, as that locks your sim. If after 4 times it still didn't work, just give up.

If you somehow do permanently lock your sim, you have to contact your cell provider for a master unlock code (not actually called a master unlock code). It's a pain so that's why I'm warning of the lockout system