SIM Swapping Hackers Convicted, Philippines Introduces New Token Offering Regulations

Late last week, a 20-year-old college student who stole more than $5 million in cryptocurrency was convicted of "SIM Swapping" or "SIM Hijacking" in Santa Clara County, California. SIM Swapping involves calling a cellphone carrier's tech support number, pretending to be the hacker's target, and requesting the target's phone number be transferred, or ported, to a new SIM card that the hackers own. By hijacking a phone number, the hackers can exploit "two-factor authentication" and intercept text messages with the security codes required to access the target's bank or cryptocurrency accounts. According to reports, the student will be the first person sentenced for SIM Swapping. Meanwhile, the first prosecution of SIM Swapping in New York also emerged late last week. The 20-year-old defendant was charged with identity theft, grand larceny, computer tampering and scheme to defraud, among other charges, for stealing the identities and funds of more than 50 victims across the United States from his Ohio home. On the civil side, an investor recently filed a lawsuit in New York claiming he was misled into investing $2 million in the cryptocurrency MCash. The filing alleges that the defendants committed federal securities fraud and common law fraud. The plaintiff is demanding the return of his investment in addition to compensatory damages worth $6...