To protect iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, Apple has built a series of security mechanisms into iMessage. For example, the instant messaging service has automatic protection against phishing messages. In fact, iMessage automatically disables links in messages from unknown senders.
This security prevents users from clicking on a malicious link. It applies by default, unless you add the sender to your contacts or interact with them. If a user replies to the message or adds the sender to their contacts, the links automatically become active.
Smishing attacks on the iPhone explode
By leveraging how this mechanism works, cybercriminals have found a way to disable iMessage’s protection against phishing. As reported by our colleagues at Bleeping Computer, iPhone owners are facing an explosion of smishing attacks, i.e. phishing by SMS, which seek to bypass protections. The messages seek to persuade targets to respond, which will automatically deactivate restrictions against fraudulent links. In fact, hackers will be able to achieve their goals.
As Benoît Grunemwald, security expert at ESET France, explains to 01Net, "cybercriminals are coming up with ever more ingenious techniques to bypass security protections". It is especially "worrying to note that they are turning to users in order to manipulate them".
Reply with a Y
The specialized media cites the example of a phishing message that impersonates USPS, the United States Postal Service. In this case, the scammers ask the victim to reply with a Y in order to "reopen the activation link" that indicates where a package is located. The link will instead redirect the target to a phishing page designed to suck up a mountain of personal data. A phishing message concerning an alleged unpaid road toll uses the same trick.
According to Benoît Grunemwald, there is not yet "any evidence confirming that these attacks are targeting France". However, there is a risk that the tactics used by American hackers will quickly be exploited in the rest of the world, including in France and other European countries.
The strategy is all the more effective because it allows cybercriminals to directly identify targets that are more likely to cooperate than others. To avoid falling into the trap set by a cybercriminal, we advise you to never respond to messages from unknown contacts, to scrupulously check the authenticity of a message before wanting to interact, and to "remain particularly vigilant when faced with requests for sensitive information", lists Benoît Grunemwald.
Source: Bleeping Computer
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