Hackers crawled Canadian streets with SMS blasters causing 13 million network disruptions


Authorities in Canada have disclosed details of a mobile cyber operation that relied on SMS blasters mounted inside vehicles moving through urban areas.

Three suspects drove around downtown Toronto with these hidden devices running in their cars, impersonating cell towers. The Toronto Police Service confirmed that this marked the first operation of its kind ever recorded in the country, with the campaign causing 13 million network disruptions in total. Investigators say the devices mimicked legitimate cellular base stations, forcing nearby phones to connect automatically due to stronger signal proximity.

Read more…
Source : TechRadar News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • BT spots 2,000 potential attacks on its network a second

    September 12, 2024

    Britain’s BT said it was spotting 2,000 signals of potential cyber-attacks across its network every second, as criminals were increasingly using disposable “bots” to try to evade existing blocking and security measures. The telecoms group said on Thursday that digital surveillance activity by hackers using malicious scanning “bots” was 1,200% higher in July compared to the ...

  • Starlink’s local bank accounts are frozen as X prepares to be shut down in Brazil

    August 30, 2024

    A judge in Brazil has blocked Starlink’s bank accounts in the country amid a deepening dispute with X. The move comes as the same Supreme Court judge has threatened to shut down X in the country, and is a direct response to the ongoing legal battle with the social media company, Reuters reported. X owner Elon ...

  • #StopRansomware: RansomHub Ransomware

    August 29, 2024

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and partners are releasing this joint advisory to disseminate known RansomHub ransomware IOCs and TTPs. These have been identified through FBI threat response activities and third-party reporting as recently as August 2024. RansomHub is a ransomware-as-a-service variant—formerly known as Cyclops and Knight—that has established itself as an efficient and successful ...

  • Heriot-Watt University begins work on new £2.5m cyber attack station

    August 29, 2024

    Work has begun on the development of a new optical ground station at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. The £2.5m facility will demonstrate and test satellite quantum secure communications and is scheduled to be fully operational by late autumn this year. The Quantum Communications Hub Optical Ground Station (HOGS) will help to tackle future cyberattacks by researching ...

  • T-Mobile Fined $60 Million to Settle Alleged National Security Violations

    August 15, 2024

    Wireless company T-Mobile US has agreed to pay about $60 million to settle allegations it failed to promptly report incidents of unauthorized data access in violation of a national security agreement that allowed its merger with rival Sprint, according to senior U.S. government officials. The civil penalty, announced Wednesday by the Committee on Foreign Investment in ...

  • 5G network flaws could be abused to let hackers spy on your phone

    August 12, 2024

    5G basebands could be exploited by attackers to allow them to send fake messages to your contacts, or even hand over your credentials using a very real-looking website, experts have warned. Unveiled at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference, a research group from Pennsylvania State University presented their vulnerability sniffing tool 5GBaseChecker. Read more… Source: MSN News Sign up for ...