In a note circulated to officials of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department here, it was said that these cyber crooks were sending specially crafted messages to these officials through SMS/WhatsApp with a link to click

Hyderabad: Government officials in Telangana have been asked to be on alert following a warning from the Intelligence Department stating that Pakistan-based ‘cyber actors’ had initiated a campaign to compromise Android-based smartphones and devices of Indian Defence personnel and government officers.

In a note circulated to officials of the Municipal Administration and Urban Development department here, it was said that these cyber crooks were sending specially crafted messages to these officials through SMS/WhatsApp with a link to click and download a fake Arogya Setu App. As the user tries to download the app by opening the link, a malicious app (Chat Me) downloads on the device and begins data exfiltration to the servers of the adversary based out of India.

Officials have been asked to be cautious and not to open or download suspicious links received on their devices.