White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is the apparent target of a hacking scam, according to a new report.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources it did not name, the White House and FBI are investigating after political and business leaders received fake communications supposedly from Wiles

The Journal reported, “senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other well-known figures” have received texts and calls from someone claiming to be Wiles.

The Journal said, the scam has been going on for several weeks, with Wiles claiming someone hacked into her personal cellphone contacts — although it is not known how that took place.

As the FBI investigates, its current conclusion is that no foreign nation is behind the fake messages.

Calls have used artificial intelligence to leave messages that sound like Wiles’s voice, the Journal reported, although the calls did not come from Wiles’s phone number.

Some requests have seemed official, such as a request to one lawmaker to develop a list of people President Donald Trump could pardon.

As a result, members of Congress have been informed of the impersonation scam.

Suspicions began to flare among recipients when questions were asked to which Wiles should have known the answer and because the grammar and usage did not align with the way in which Wiles usually communicates.

However, the Journal report said that some of those who received communications from the person impersonating Wiles did communicate back with the impersonator.

Wiles has told contacts to disregard the messages and also issued an apology to those who have received them.

“The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated,” a White House representative said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said his agency is investigating the alleged hack.

“The FBI takes all threats against the President, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness; safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the President’s mission is a top priority,” he said in a statement, according to CBS.

Earlier this month, the FBI warned of “an ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign” that began in April when someone “impersonated senior U.S. officials to target individuals, many of whom are current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts,” according to the New York Post.

“The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages — techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively — that claim to come from a senior U.S. official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts,” the FBI warning read.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.



Read the full article here

Share.
Leave A Reply

Exit mobile version