ALERT! This SMS hacker attack can threaten your OTP, may impact WhatsApp account too: Report

According to a report, even your SMS, OTP are not safe and may actually impact your WhatsApp account too. In a major alert for smartphone users, hackers may have found a new way to steal your personal data. Now, cyber security experts have detected a new mode of attack in which hackers are using SMS to steal data from your smartphones. According to the report, the hackers are making use of security flaws to redirect important text messages like SMS, including those containing OTP, or login links for services such as WhatsApp.

They are using SMS, which are meant for business purposes, to carry out the attack. Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox has exposed this new threat, as per a BGR.in report. As an experiment, Cox allowed a hacker to actually carry out the attack on his personal number.

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Cox reported that the hacker managed to redirect the SMS supposed to arrive on his smartphone and intercept data. According to Cox, the hackers carry out the attack in such a way that the victim would not even know that he has been targeted.

"Looking down at my phone, there was no sign it had been hacked. I still had reception; the phone said I was still connected to the T-Mobile network. Nothing was unusual there. But the hacker had swiftly, stealthily, and largely effortlessly redirected my text messages to themselves. And all for just $16,” the report that was published on VICE read.

Zee Business Online reached out to WhatsApp, but its response had not come in by the time this report was published. 

In Cox’s case, the hacker Lucky225 had orchestrated the attack with his permission. However, this might not be the case of those who fall victim to such SMS attacks in real-life. The attack involves rerouting the victim’s messages so that hackers can gain access to personal information such as for instance, log in to social media accounts associated with that phone number.

The hacker took the help of a service by a company called Sakari, which helps businesses do SMS marketing and mass messaging, according to the report. A $16 monthly plan (roughly Rs 1,600) was used by the hacker to get a Letter of Authorization (LOA) from the company, which gave authority to “switch telephone numbers”.