Home / Updates / Take text codes off your exchange and email accounts
Take text codes off your exchange and email accounts
Text codes on your exchange and email are only as safe as your phone number, and a SIM swap puts that number in someone else's hands.
Written by John AlewineReviewed by the Crypto Guidance team
Published ยท Updated
If your exchange or email account still uses text message codes, change that. A SIM swap is an attacker taking over your phone number through your carrier. Every SMS code and phone-based reset then goes to them, and that number is often the master key to your exchange account.
SMS two-factor authenticates your phone number. That number is a customer-service conversation away from being someone else's.
What to change
- Use an authenticator app, or better, hardware security keys, on email and every exchange.
- Set a carrier port-out PIN and account lock.
- Give email the strongest protection, since it resets everything else.
- Keep long-term holdings in self-custody, where no phone number resets anything.
Lost signal is the alarm
If your phone suddenly loses signal, move fast: carrier, email, exchanges, in that order.
An AI assistant can explain how an authenticator app differs from text codes, but your carrier and exchange settings pages are where you make the change and check it yourself.
Like phishing, this is an attack on the human layer. More on what a SIM swap is and on the Security page. If you want a second set of eyes while you switch, consulting is one person at a time, and I never ask for your keys or seed phrase.