Preventing Smishing Crimes; Beware of Health Examination Impersonation Texts!
In Korea, individuals over 18 years old are required to undergo a medical examination every two years while employed. However, due to the scheduling conflicts between work and medical appointments, many individuals tend to schedule their medical examinations towards the end of the year, treating it almost like a year-end task or obligation.
According to data from the National Health Insurance Service, over 40% of health examination participants undergo national health examinations after October. As year-end medical checkups surge, there is a noticeable increase in crimes exploiting this trend.
Smishing Exploiting Health Examinations
“Smishing” is a combination of SMS (Short Message Service) and phishing, where malicious app URLs are included in mass text messages sent to mobile phones. Users are encouraged to click on the provided URL, leading to the installation of malicious apps or making phone calls, ultimately resulting in the theft of financial information or personal data.
π Examples and precautions of rapidly Increasing Smishing Incidents
According to the East Security Response Center’s “Smishing Attack Statistics,” smishing related to national health examinations constitutes 43.72% of all smishing attacks, claiming the top spot. Subsequently, smishing related to parcel delivery (29.88%), impersonation of public institutions (10.88%), and voice phishing (6.23%) follow in descending order.
“National Health Examination Notification Details”
“You are eligible for a free health examination.”
Especially towards the end of the year when health examinations are concentrated, smishing crimes are on the rise. Perpetrators impersonate the call center number of the National Health Insurance Service to deceive victims with malicious URLs towards false health examination results or appointment details.
The smishing texts sent by hackers during health examination periods contain malicious URLs that redirect users to deceptive pages when clicked. This exposes individuals to risks such as data leakage or financial fraud, as they are prompted to install malicious apps that can compromise their smartphones after entering personal information on phishing pages.
Special attention is required to prevent smishing damage, as a momentary lapse in judgment can lead to severe consequences, including the exposure of personal information and financial losses.
How to Prevent Smishing Crimes
If a text message contains an unclear URL link, you should delete it immediately, and do not click on it.
To prevent smishing crimes in various ways, including texts, it is necessary to install vaccines or smartphone health check applications to keep them up to date at all times and periodically check the security of the smartphone to check in advance whether malware is included in the app installed on the device.
Cryptobric is a mobile application service that implements Secure Web Gateway (SWG), a technology that protects users from web-based threats on the Internet.
Enabling the *SWG function of Cryptobric blocks access through phishing URLs contained in text, mail, etc. within the user’s mobile to prevent threat information such as hacking from reaching the user. It also provides free malware scanning and cryptocurrency-related app risk verification to keep your devices safe from cyber threats.Β
* SWG(Secure Web Gateway) is a technology that protects user terminals and web sections by blocking attacks from outside and refers to a secure web gateway that protects users as endpoints from web threats on the Internet, such as harmful sites or malware.
π Download Android Version
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*Currently, SWG function is available only in the Android version.
Embedded deeply in our daily lives, the evolving and sophisticated nature of smishing attacks underscores the critical importance of remembering that prevention is the most effective defense against becoming a victim.