A threat actor is trying to con female cybersecurity pros into downloading malware.<\/p>\n
The warning comes from the Canadian-based Women CyberSecurity Society<\/a> (WCS2), which says someone is targeting members of the leadership team, members, and volunteers, trying to trick them into clicking on malicious links in text-based phishing messages, which is also called smishing.<\/p>\n “A volunteer recently reported receiving a text message claiming to be from founder Lisa Kearney<\/a>\u00a0citing an urgent need for help,” the warning says.<\/p>\n “We believe others will be targeted in such a manner and we urge you to exercise caution when interacting with emails, messages and online links from someone who you don’t know.”<\/p>\n The text message asked the volunteer to buy some Google certificate back codes.<\/p>\n One key this is a scam: The sender said they were in a meeting, could only text and asked the volunteer “to run a task urgently.”<\/p>\n Experts say a message asking a person to do something quickly — such as spend money, send money, or send a copy of sensitive information — should be seen as suspicious.<\/p>\n WCS2 believes the threat actor used LinkedIn and open-source intelligence to gather information about the organization, members, and volunteers to target them.<\/p>\n The group asks members to<\/p>\n – Verify caller identity:<\/strong> If you receive a call claiming to be from the Women CyberSecurity Society, ask for the caller’s name and contact information. Hang up, independently verify the information through official channels, and call back using a published contact number;<\/p>\n – Do not click on suspicious links:<\/strong> Avoid clicking on any links received through phone calls, voicemails, or text messages, especially if the communication seems unexpected or unusual;<\/p>\n – Report suspicious activity:<\/strong> If you receive any communication that seems suspicious or if you believe you have been targeted, please report it immediately to WCS2’s security team;<\/p>\n – Use security software:<\/strong>\u00a0Install and regularly update security software on your mobile device, desktop, laptops and tablets to help detect and prevent smishing attacks.<\/p>\n – Educate yourself:<\/strong>\u00a0Stay informed about common phishing tactics and be cautious when receiving unexpected messages, even if they appear to be from familiar sources.<\/p>\n WCS2’s next event is Jan. 30, when it will host a two-hour webinar on how to start a new career in cybersecurity.<\/a><\/p>\n The post Female cyber pros group targeted in phishing scam<\/a> first appeared on IT World Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Women in CyberSecurity Society says a volunteer recently received a text message impersonating the group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,30],"tags":[391,407,393,275,658],"class_list":["post-43518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-women-in-tech","tag-di","tag-phishing","tag-security-strategies","tag-top-story","tag-women-in-it"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43519,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43518\/revisions\/43519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technewsday.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}