Senior US Officials Impersonated in Malicious Messaging Campaign


FBI is issuing this announcement to warn and provide mitigation tips to the public about an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign.

Since April 2025, malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior US federal or state government officials and their contacts. If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic. The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts.

Read more…
Source: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Cyber Division


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • Florida: Hacker Changed Chemical Levels at Oldsmar’s Water Treatment Plant

    February 8, 2021

    Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday there were two intrusions, hours apart. The first one happened at 8 a.m., when a plant operator noticed someone remotely accessing the system he was monitoring, which controls chemicals and other plant operations. But he didn’t think much of it, according to the sheriff, because ...

  • US federal payroll agency hacked using SolarWinds software flaw

    February 2, 2021

    The FBI has discovered that the National Finance Center (NFC), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal payroll agency, was compromised by exploiting a SolarWinds Orion software flaw, according to a Reuters report. NFC provides human resources and payroll services to roughly 170 federal agencies and over 650,000 federal employees since 1973. The software vulnerability used to ...

  • Minnesota: Netgain ransomware incident impacts local governments

    February 2, 2021

    The ransomware incident that Netgain, a provider of managed IT services, had late last year rippled onto its customers. Now, Ramsey County, Minnesota, is informing clients of the Family Health Division program that the hackers may have accessed personal data. The government of Ramsey County learned about the potential breach on December 2, 2020, when Netagin ...

  • World’s Most Dangerous Malware Emotet Disrupted Through Global Action

    January 27, 2021

    Law enforcement and judicial authorities worldwide have this week disrupted one of most significant botnets of the past decade: EMOTET. Investigators have now taken control of its infrastructure in an international coordinated action. This operation is the result of a collaborative effort between authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, ...

  • US Department of Justice Launches Global Action Against NetWalker Ransomware

    January 27, 2021

    The Department of Justice today announced a coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker. NetWalker ransomware has impacted numerous victims, including companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. Attacks have specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the ...

  • Russian government warns of US retaliatory cyberattacks

    January 23, 2021

    The Russian government has issued a security warning to organizations in Russia about possible retaliatory cyberattacks by the USA for the SolarWinds breach. Last month, the SolarWinds network management company disclosed that they suffered a sophisticated cyberattack that led to a supply chain attack affecting 18,000 customers. The US government believes that this attack was conducted by ...