The independent communications authority of South Africa (ICASA) has submitted a radical proposal to tackle the problem of SIM swapping attacks in the country. It suggests that local service providers should keep biometric data of cellphone number owners. By doing so, telecommunication firms like Vodacom and MTN would be able to use the data to confirm the person asking for a number porting action is the legitimate owner. Privacy advocates fear that exclusive use for identity authentication won’t be strictly enforced and that authorities or intelligence agencies could be given access to the database.”]