Russian special services have stepped up attempts to hack into the accounts of Ukrainians, with the enemy focusing on Ukrainian military and civil servants, the State Special Communications Service warned on Thursday, UNN writes.
Russian special services have stepped up attempts to hack into the accounts of Ukrainians using social engineering. Experts are recording cyberattacks aimed at gaining unauthorized access to the accounts of Ukrainian servicemen and employees of state institutions. The main goal is espionage, compromising digital identities, stealing information, extorting funds from the victim's contacts, and creating conditions for further attacks
Separately, the institution drew attention to the fact that:
- one of the most common attack vectors is phishing using messengers. In particular, hackers are focusing on Signal, a messenger popular among the military;
- the use of desktop messenger applications creates additional security risks;
- attacks are often carried out through emotionally manipulative messages.
Security recommendations
In view of the escalation of threats, the State Special Communications Service calls for:
- strengthen control over compliance with the policy of using messengers in the security and defense sector;
- do not use official PCs for desktop versions of messengers, unless there is an urgent need to do so;
- regularly update and use unique passwords for other services (or accounts), and limit the number of login attempts;
- check active sessions in accounts and immediately terminate unknown ones;
- do not open files or links sent from unknown numbers, even if they look plausible;
- enable two-factor authentication.