One type of cyberattack is trending for hackers. It is fake emergency data requests usually sent by law enforcement. In other words, it is a mixture of phishing and the fake police or investigator scam.

What is it really?

Law enforcement agencies often request data from social platforms as part of criminal investigations, which
which allows them to obtain information about the owner of a specific online account. While these requests require a subpoena or search warrant signed by a judge, emergency data requests, which involve life-threatening situations, do not.

According to multiple reports, Apple and Meta passed user data to hackers who faked emergency data request orders typically sent by law enforcement. Both companies fell for the trick and provided information about users’ IP addresses, phone numbers and home addresses.

Apple and Meta are not the only ones to fall into this trap. Many other well-known companies have reported falling victim to the same attacks.

Teenagers are mostly behind this type of attack!

Many reports and analyses show that this type of attack is mainly carried out by teenagers. The well-known hacking group Lapsus$ has carried out very similar attacks, some of whose members have been arrested, and others may have joined other groups with different names, and even in different countries.

The nature of these crimes, cybercrimes, does not require the physical presence of all members of the group in one place, but only a secure Internet connection, and the latter is widely available to everyone.

Finally, this tactic poses a significant threat to the entire technology industry, which is why companies should continually invest in their “Trust & Security” capabilities to effectively deal with emerging issues like this.

A propos de Maryline SUCCAR