The Federal Communications Commission has issued a warning that more SMS phishing, or smishing, attacks have been targeting Americans in an effort to exfiltrate personal data and cash, according to BleepingComputer.
Unwanted text messages totaled 8,500 during the first six months of 2022, which is already more than half of the 15,300 unwanted messages reported last year, itself nearly three times higher than the messages tracked in 2019, said the FCC's Robocall Response Team.
"In addition, some independent reports estimate billions of robotexts each month for example, RoboKiller estimates consumers received over 12 billion robotexts in June," the warning noted.
The FCC noted that attackers performing smishing attacks have been leveraging believable lures, including package delivery concerns, unpaid bills, law enforcement actions, and bank account issues. Such attacks could be averted by not responding to messages from unknown numbers, refraining from sharing personal or financial details in text messages, and avoiding clicking on links, said the FCC.
SiliconAngle reports that mounting security alert fatigue has prompted Torq to introduce its new HyperSOC system based on its Hyperautomation Platform using artificial intelligence to enable security operation center response automation, management, and monitoring in a bid to bolster the investigation and remediation of cybersecurity threats.
Moldovan botnet operator Alexander Lefterov, also known as Alipatime, Alipako, and Uptime, has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his involvement in widespread attacks against U.S.-based computers, BleepingComputer reports.
CyberScoop reports that over 100 Ukrainian local government and police documents uploaded to VirusTotal in February were discovered to have been infected with the OfflRouter malware, which dates back to 2015 and could only spread through already compromised files and removable media devices.