The National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, has cautioned Nigerians against new cyber attack with the use of telegram bots and Google forms to automate phishing.
Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords.
The idea is to trick the recipient into releasing sensitive data such as credit card details, and passwords. Once the recipient clicks on the link, the website harvests personal information from unsuspecting recipients.
The agency stated this on its official Twitter handle.
It said, “Hackers use legitimate services such as Google Forms and Telegram to obtain user data stolen during phishing attacks.
“Various ready-to-go platforms which are available on the darknet are used to manage the entire process of the phishing attack and keep financial records linked to them. Such platforms are distributed under the cybercrime-as-a-service model, which subsequently leads to more groups conducting attacks.
“Cybercriminals mainly resort to free email services to obtain data of victims (all info harvested on phishing websites is automatically sent) and gain access to the data of linked bank cards.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
