Hackers are beginning to couple social engineering schemes with computer based denial service attacks to their victims phones in order to compromise financial accounts.  According to the FBI, the attack may take weeks to unfold.  The hacker first uses social engineering, malware attacks,  and/or phishing attempts to gather information such as phone number(s), banking numbers, ID/Password combination’s, etc.  Once all the necessary information is gathered the hacker will contact the financial institution posing as the victim to withdraw funds.  Here is where the “misdial” comes in, the hacker uses a voice over Internet Protocol dialing program in order to besiege the victims phone so the financial institution cannot call to confirm the transaction.  The hacker then calls the financial institution back posing again as the victim in order to approve the transaction.

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Protecting Yourself

1.  Regularly review bank accounts and credit history

2.  Contact your financial institution in order to increase account security by requiring two forms of authentication when approving transactions over the phone.

3.  Use complex passwords and change them often

4.  Limit personal information on social networking websites, i.e. phone numbers, address, etc.

5.  Update anti-virus software and keep computer up to date with patches