Finland has reported text messages of unknown origin that are spreading malware. These messages have malicious links, and Telia Co AB, the country’s second-biggest telecommunications operator, has intercepted hundreds of thousands of these messages.
Teemu Makela, chief information security officer at Elisa Oyj, the largest telecoms operator, said that the malware attack is exceptional and very worrying, and quite a big amount of text messages are flying around.
Most of the messages claim that the recipient has received a voicemail, asking them to open a link. Upon opening the link, Android devices are asked to install an application called Flubot that contains the malware, while iPhones users are taken to other fraudulent material on the link. The National Cyber Security Centre has issued a “severe alert”.
The messages started beeping Finns’ mobiles late last week, and as per Telia fraud manager Antti Turunen, the campaign is worse than a similar instance that happened in summer. A mobile malware spread in Finland in June 2021 and persisted into August. Back then, messages written in Finnish were sent to thousands of people. The message said that there was a package in delivery and included a tracking link which redirected the user to install Flubot.
