In 2018 Mark Kreitzman's phone went dead in the Arizona desert. Someone at a phone store had moved his number to another device, and in 61 minutes the attackers reset passwords on his bank, email, cloud and crypto accounts. That SIM swap is why he helped build Efani, a mobile carrier designed to stop it from happening.

Mark has worked in telecom and cybersecurity since starting at AT&T in the late 90s, including at Global Crossing and two security startups bought by Microsoft and Cisco. He explains why a SIM swap bypasses every app and password on your phone, and why the carriers accept a certain amount of this fraud as a cost of business.

In this episode:

- How a text message reaches the right phone anywhere in the world

- What happened in the 61 minutes his number was hijacked

- Why a strong password doesn't help when attackers control your SMS codes

- Scanning 1,000 company domains in 4.2 seconds on a $7 a month server

- API keys and staging sites left exposed by AI-built apps

- "Data poisoning" as a way to make data brokers less sure about you

- Email spoofing protections (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that take minutes to set up

- How Efani locks down accounts with human verification and SIM swap insurance

Find Mark and Efani at https://efani.com. Mark mentioned a discount for listeners at https://efani.com/promo. His security research is on Medium and LinkedIn under Mark Kreitzman.

I'm Armando J. Perez-Carreno. I help businesses find where AI actually fits and build the tools that make it work. Learn more at https://perezcarreno.com. If this one was useful, subscribe so you catch the next conversation.

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