The
Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) has on Monday warned against
malicious PDF files sent from anonymous parties through WhatsApp and emails,
which may steal a user's personal data and render the smartphones and
electronic devices nonfunctional.
The national PC
emergency response team at the TRA earlier announced that it managed to ward
off about 615 attacks in 10 months this year. The cyber-attacks had targeted
many websites of government and semi government bodies as well as those of the
private sector.
The TRA called
upon the users of electronic devices, be individuals or institutions, to beware
while dealing with such malicious files that are sent from untrusted sources.
In such an
attack, the malicious PDF file, which contains an anti-security virus, is sent
to the person or the body targeted, and when it is opened to be read the
anti-security virus is activated and hack the adobe reader programme, which
could enable the attacker to have a full control of the victim's system.