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SINGAPORE – She visited a bubble tea shop and saw a sticker pasted on its glass door, encouraging customers to do an online survey to get a free cup of milk tea.
Enticed by what seemed like a good deal, the 60-year-old scanned the QR code on the sticker and downloaded a third-party app onto her Android phone to complete the “survey”.
That night, as she was sleeping, her mobile phone suddenly lit up.
Thanks to the app she had downloaded, scammers used it to take over her device and moved $20,000 from her bank account.
Worryingly, she is not the only victim of such malware scams.
In April, the police and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore warned the public about downloading apps from dubious sites that can lead to malware being installed onto victims’ mobile phones.
They said such malware has resulted in confidential and sensitive data, including banking credentials, being stolen.
That month, the police also alerted the public to the resurgence of phishing scams involving malware installed on victims’ Android phones. The police had said that since March, there have been at least 113 victims who lost at least $445,000.
The case of the bubble tea survey scam was related to The Sunday Times by Mr Beaver Chua, head of anti-fraud at OCBC Bank’s group financial crime compliance department, last week.
He said: “While malware scams are not particularly new, scammers are getting increasingly innovative.
“Besides website pop-up banners, which are most common, pasting bogus QR codes outside F&B establishments is another cunning way to hook victims as consumers may not be able to differentiate between legitimate and malicious QR codes.”
Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said during Monday’s White House briefing that Russia had been conducting “preparatory activity” for cyber attacks, which she said could include scanning websites and hunting for software vulnerabilities.”
The so-called “preparatory activity” that Neuberger mentioned Monday is likely “not about espionage, it’s probably very likely about disruptive or destructive [cyber] activity,” US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said Tuesday on a phone briefing with industry executives and state and local government personnel, according to three sources on the call.
There are at least 18 US companies in other sectors, such as defense and financial services that were subjected to the scanning, the FBI said.
There are no confirmed breaches related to the scanning, but the FBI advisory is the latest in a chorus of warnings from US officials to critical infrastructure operators to be on alert for potential Russian hacking. “The magnitude of Russia’s cyber capacity is fairly consequential and it’s coming,” Biden told business executives on Monday.
The Russia-based Internet Protocol addresses, or data that identifies a computer, are “believed to be associated with cyber actors who previously conducted destructive cyber activity against foreign critical infrastructure,” the FBI said in its advisory.
“This scanning activity has increased since the start of the Russia/Ukraine conflict, leading to a greater possibility of future intrusions,” the FBI memo states.
For months, the US departments of Energy, Treasury and Homeland Security, among others, have briefed big electric utilities and banks on Russian hacking capabilities, and urged businesses to lower their thresholds for reporting suspicious activity.
Play store apps to be scanned for malware BBC News
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