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  • 2022-03-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Facebook Posts About Homeland Security Memos and 'Hacked' Cellphones Are Misleading (en)
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  • In late March 2022, we looked into two viral and false Facebook posts that were copied and pasted by countless users. One of the posts, which was also purportedly received as a text message alert, claimed that cellphones are being hacked to steal banking information. The misleading copypasta post said that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned U.S. citizens to keep your fuel topped off, to gather cash and food, and to plan for the uncertainties surrounding the potential global impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The first message appeared to warn of a potential Russian cyberattack and read as follows: The second viral message did not mention cellphones but did keep the Homeland Security part. It added lines about keeping basic food, emergency preparedness supplies, and a family emergency plan all ready to go: There's some truth to these two viral posts. At the same time, they're also quite misleading. We've been publishing debunkings of similarly scary-sounding yet harmless Facebook posts for many years. As for the first post, we found no evidence that pressing a single digit on a mobile phone after receiving a call could release all your banking information to be hacked and stolen. Such a result, if it happened, would amount to some kind of fantasy or magic that doesn't have a possibility of happening in reality. As for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claims in both posts, these also were fairly misleading. Homeland Security did not issue a memo or any guidance to all U.S. citizens to keep your fuel topped off or to store up some cash due to the war in Ukraine. The quotes at the end of the second post came from an interview with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a letter from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The partial truth of these posts was that CISA did issue some guidance to federal agencies and organizations to be prepared for a cyberattack during the conflict in Ukraine. An initiative, dubbed Shields Up, specifically provided recommendations for agencies and organizations, not all citizens, to beef up security and to plan for the worst. The Hill reported that this guidance for federal employees and workers at organizations did include keeping fuel topped off and having extra food, cash, and other supplies ready as part of a personal and professional preparedness plan. However, again, this wasn't meant for all U.S. citizens. On the website Ready.gov, which is officially operated by Homeland Security, the department published a page for all citizens about how to be prepared for a cyberattack. Nowhere on the page did it say anything about storing up basic food, emergency preparedness supplies, or a family emergency plan. (Some of these components are mentioned for other disasters such as the event of a nuclear explosion, however.) KHOU previously published a debunking of the first viral post that mentioned, cellphones are being hacked. The outlet reported that it had received the following statement from a spokesperson for the department: The Department of Homeland Security did not send this text message alert. We reached out to the department to independently confirm the statement sent to KHOU and to find out if it had anything else to add. This story will be updated if we receive further information. (en)
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