Finland battles ‘exceptional’ malware attack spread by phones

The messages started beeping on Finns’ mobiles late last week, prompting the National Cyber Security Centre to issue a ‘severe alert’. — Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash

Finland is working to stop a flood of text messages of an unknown origin that are spreading malware.

The messages with malicious links to malware called FluBot number in the millions, according to Aino-Maria Vayrynen, information security specialist at the National Cyber Security Centre. Telia Co AB, the country’s second-biggest telecommunications operator, has intercepted some hundreds of thousands of messages.