Show notes
Episode Notes
Mark Kreitzman had a carrier PIN, a SIM PIN lock and a rule that nothing on his account could change unless he was in a store with his passport and driver's licence. His number got moved anyway. He tells Cody how it happened: his phone going quiet on a desert highway between Phoenix and Tucson, a flood of password reset alerts once he reached his parents' Wi-Fi, and about 90 days to learn that a store employee in Memphis, Tennessee, had logged him as standing at the counter. He lives on the West Coast.
Mark is General Manager at Efani, the secure mobile carrier he helped build after that SIM swap. He started at AT\&T and held security leadership roles at OpenDNS, Mobolize and Lattice Security, and lately he builds his own AI tools that scan company domains for the gaps attackers look for.
His warning is that you don't have to be famous to be a target anymore. He says a $7 a month server and a few scripts can scan thousands of companies overnight and rank the easiest to break into, and that in his scans, companies people trust with their data keep failing basics like email spoofing protection and forgotten staging domains. He explains why he says carriers accept a small amount of SIM swap fraud, how Efani locks down a mobile account, and why you could lock your phone in a safe and still lose your number, because the change happens in the network.
They also talk about scam compounds in Southeast Asia, where, Mark says, some workers are held like prisoners; the security.txt file that lets researchers report holes; device and browser fingerprinting; data deletion companies that play both sides; why he thinks AI means privacy is dead; why your phone number has a reputation score; and how to set up a secure phone with GrapheneOS, including two companies he recommends if you'd rather buy one set up with support.
Chapters:
0:00 AI is choosing who gets hacked next
2:05 The truth the security industry won't admit
3:17 An AI scanner that finds who's easy to hack
5:46 How AI decides who's worth targeting
8:20 Email spoofing, phishing and forgotten staging domains
12:31 Scam compounds and the hack nobody could report
18:02 From AT\&T to email security
22:38 The SIM swap that started Efani
26:15 How Efani stops SIM swaps, and why carriers don't
30:59 Device and browser fingerprinting
35:56 Data deletion companies play both sides
40:08 With AI, privacy is dead, and your number has a score
48:04 Secure phones, GrapheneOS and why the network is the weak point
55:26 Final advice and how to find Mark
Find Mark:
Efani: https://www.efani.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kreitzman
Mentioned in this episode:
GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org
Above Phone: https://abovephone.com
Mark37: https://mark37.com
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Episode partners:
Efani, the secure mobile carrier built to stop SIM swaps. Use code WEIRDCANADIAN: https://www.efani.com/theweirdcanadian
Async, the AI video editor I use: https://async.com/?ref=zjdlyzn
Disclosure: Mark Kreitzman is General Manager at Efani, which sponsors this episode. The Efani and Async links are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up through them.
Context: this conversation reflects the speakers' views. Mark's SIM swap account, his scan results and his descriptions of Efani and the carrier industry are his own and weren't independently verified. Nothing here is legal or financial advice. Correction: in the privacy segment, Mark says US data brokers are federally regulated and must delete your data within 7 days. There's no general US federal data broker deletion law. Under California's Delete Act, starting August 1, 2026, registered data brokers must check the state's deletion platform at least once every 45 days and process consumers' deletion requests. Contains explicit language.
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