ho.mobile , Vodafone’s virtual operator victim of a major data theft (all details in this article), announced that “to further increase security we regenerated the serial code of the SIM for all ho.mobile customers involved , which we informed via SMS . The customer does not have to take any action. The new code replaces the one printed on the SIM , subject of the activity on lawful, which therefore will no longer have any value “.

It is therefore no longer necessary to replace the SIM by going personally to authorized points of sale (moreover, in many shops the new SIMs were quickly sold out). The operator is then regenerating the ICCID code (the serial number 19 digits printed on the card) of the SIMs involved for to avoid potential dangers such as the so-called SIM SWAP , i.e. the header by the criminals, through compliant shopkeepers, of the SIM to other people for illegal activities.

The new code replaces the one printed on the SIM, which thus becomes obsolete, and is used in case of operator change : who did not receive the SMS was not involved in the data theft or the code change. For further information you can keep an eye on this page on the operator’s website.

We remind you that the stolen data are personal data of the SIM holders – name, surname, telephone number, social security number, e-mail, date and place of birth, nationality, address – and technical data of the SIM cards. Unfortunately, it cannot be ruled out that the phone number and email, in particular, are used by attackers for phishing or scams of various kinds.