search “[Carrier Name] default SIM PIN”

if you get it wrong twice, then just forget about it (max 3 attempts), I mean just be careful and don’t let your phone get stolen lol

(Or if you have the PUK (its on the back of the plastic card that comes with your SIM Card (for physical SIMs)) you can just get it wrong 3 times then use the PUK to reset the PIN)

That feels worse…

At least you can change a phone number

How do you change your personal info? Its permanent and unchanging… One databreach and you’re fucked

Soon on TERF Island:

They’re gonna have AI cameras to detect if you “went to the right gender bathroom”, and if AI decrees that you’ve entered the wrong one, they’ll flag you as a “sex offender”, then activate the terminators posted at the store to “eliminate sex offenders”

All bank accounts require a phone number. VOIP numbers does not work.

Online banking through a computer requires a phone number for them to send a 2fa code to before letting you log in. (Phone number 2fa is the only 2FA option, and even if not, its often used as a recovery option to whatever other 2fa method there is, effectively making the phone number the weakest link)

But I guess if you don’t like that, you could tell them to disable online banking and avoid using electronics for banking, but then you’d have to either go to the bank every week and wait in an annoying line to verify you’re getting paid and that the amount is correct (cuz you can’t trust employers)

(Or use the sketchy ATM machine that could have card skimmers and fake PIN pads, can sometimes be much more dangerous than online banking IMO)

(Also some people need online banking like my parent have a small bussiness and my mom has to do a bunch of bank transfers every month through online banking…)

SIM PINs are 4-8 digits

The SIM Chip itself is supposed to limit entry attempts to 3, idk if anyone managed to bypass it

After that, it required a PUK Code, 8 digits I believe. Its sometimes found on the big plastic card thing (its like the size of a credit card, and you pop off a physical sim from it). 10 Attempts.

I think the carrier also has it.

So an attacker needs to either:

1. Guess the SIM PIN in 3 tries
2. Somehow hack the chip to bypass the limits
3. (a) Obtain the plastic card thing or (b) Social engineering to get customer support to provide PUK (I mean if they can manage to trick customer support, they could probably just get a new eSIM (which is immediately issued to their phone through the internet) anyways
   or
4. Somehow guess a 8 digit code in 10 tries

The thing is, I as a kid/teen messed with tech stuff a lot (got my parents SIM cards locked a few times 👀, they got so mad at me lol) and I found that sometimes I can reboot a phone and the 10 attempts on the PUK code would reset… idk how, maybe the SIM card had issues… or maybe it’s a T-Mobile issue.