With news this past week that security vulnerabilities that could expose customer data have been uncovered at three major wireless carriers, coupled with confirmation that T-Mobile customer data was exposed – including phone numbers - WIRED posts an article highlighting how the paradigm of using our phone numbers as “authenticators” puts us at greater risk. Sadly, our phone numbers have become less private and more than just a way to contact someone as more companies and services are relying on smartphones to confirm, or authenticate our identity. To reduce the over-reliance on our phone numbers, identity management experts propose a solution to generate unique identifiers by using a combination of phone number and the IMEI device ID number. In the meantime, to protect your phone number, use it as little as possible for signups and logins. Wired