Beware: Scammers can hack you using nothing but a phone number

I'm just about finished reading New York Times writer Nicole Perlroth's fantastic new book, This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends, in which she lifts up and turns over the rock of the global cyberwar arms race to show us all the nasty, wormy hackers and spies underneath who play around in that muck. It's a gripping read, like some kind of cyber-focused John le Carre thriller -- only, you know, real -- and I can't recommend it enough.

However, it's also important to remember that hackers can cause all sorts of mischief without even needing to resort to the zero-days and the myriad other digital tools that they pay top dollar for, and which nation-states have used to amass frighteningly expansive hacking war chests.

Sometimes, all a hacker needs is your number to pull off something like a nasty yet highly effective phone scam.