Hackers, new threat from voice messages

A voice mail message to spread a malicious virus. This is the latest frontier of hackers according to the security company Check Point Software. The technique, which has already been used in the past to confuse WhatsApp users, is now targeting companies. Many enable email notification of incoming voicemail messages. The hackers take advantage of this feature, however, by inserting as an e-mail attachment not an audio file, which is what one would expect in such cases, but an executable programme which, if opened, starts a virus on the computer.

According to Check Point researchers, there have been at least a thousand of these attacks globally in recent weeks. The email starts with a subject line containing a phone number, which if searched on Google turns out not to be legitimate. If one continues, the text appears to come - but is not - from an actual answering service. "A voicemail message can be effective for some users, while others may not realise it," explains Jeremy Fuchs, Cybersecurity Researcher and Analyst at Check Point Software, "By impersonating a known brand and adding a voice message that intrigues, cyber criminals have created an interesting way to obtain credentials from end users.

Exactly two years ago, researchers at Armorblox discovered a hacking campaign targeting WhatsApp users. Criminals pretended to be officials from the Moscow region's road safety centre and sent voice messages, received via email, to be opened to listen to a communication. The victim, convinced that he was clicking to listen to the audio, actually opened a website that, after receiving the 'allow' command from the surfer, installed malware on the computer.