Notifications until you press "Yes"

Your phone keeps asking: "Approve sign-in?" In the middle of the night. Until, worn out, you press Yes.

1How they do it

1. The hacker already knows your password, for example from a data breach.
2. He tries to log in again and again. With every attempt, you get a notification.
3. Sometimes he calls as well: "This is the IT department, just press Yes to make it stop."
4. One Yes is enough: he is in.

2A real example

02:14, 02:15, 02:15, 02:17: "Sign-in request. Approve?" And at 02:20 a text message: "IT support: confirm the notification to unblock your account."

3How to spot it

• Notifications you did not start yourself.
• Lots of notifications in quick succession.
• Someone asking you to approve a notification.

4How to protect yourself

• Never approve anything you did not start yourself. Choose No.
• Change your password straight away: the hacker knows it.
• Use a system that shows a number on the screen that you have to choose.

Suspicious number, email or website? Check it or report it.

Examples have been made unrecognisable. Names and numbers in the examples are made up.

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