On October 15, 2021, researchers discovered that Russian-linked TA505 was targeting financial institutions globally in a new malware campaign, tracked as MirrorBlast. The infection begins with an email attachment document. After clicking the URL, targets will be directed to a fake OneDrive site, a compromised SharePoint, displaying a sign-in requirement to evade sandboxes.
New phishing scam targets Android devs with fake violation warning
Between June and July, hackers targeted customers of Vodacom with phishing attacks and carried out fradulent bank transactions. The hackers stole bank account details by imitating bank officials; one employee of Vodacom who was also involved in the scam then intercepted the one-time passwords on fake SIM cards to siphon off cash. Several hackers were arrested in South Africa in July and August.
In the event their attack proves successful, fraudsters can choose to conduct CEO fraud. As the second phase of a business email compromise (BEC) scam, CEO fraud is when attackers abuse the compromised email account of a CEO or other high-ranking executive to authorize fraudulent wire transfers to a financial institution of their choice. Alternatively, they can leverage that same email account to conduct W-2 phishing in which they request W-2 information for all employees so that they can file fake tax returns on their behalf or post that data on the dark web.
In January 2014, the Seculert Research Lab identified a new targeted attack that used Xtreme RAT (Remote Access Toolkit). Spear phishing emails targeted Israeli organizations to deploy the advanced malware. 15 machines were compromised - including those belonging to the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria.In August 2014, iCloud leaked almost 500 private celebrity photos, many containing nudity. It was discovered during the investigation that Ryan Collins accomplished this phishing attack by sending emails to the victims that looked like legitimate Apple and Google warnings, alerting the victims that their accounts may have been compromised and asking for their account details. The victims would enter their password, and Collins gained access to their accounts, downloading emails and iCloud backups.In September 2014, Home Depot suffered a massive breach, with the personal and credit card data of 100+million shoppers posted for sale on hacking websites.In November 2014, ICANN employees became victims of spear phishing attacks, and its DNS zone administration system was compromised, allowing the attackers to get zone files and personal data about users in the system, such as their real names, contact information, and salted hashes of their passwords. Using these stolen credentials, the hackers tunneled into ICANN's network and compromised the Centralized Zone Data System (CZDS), their Whois portal and more.
Only 40% of business phishing scams contain links, according to a recently released report from Barracuda Networks in which the security vendor analyzed over 3,000 Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. These attacks leverage company email purporting to be someone within the organization, and have one of four objectives in mind: Establish rapport, Get the recipient to click a malicious link, Steal personally identifiable information or Obtain a Wire Transfer.
Phishing campaigns during the partial U.S. government shut down in January 2019 caused widespread confusion over whether the IRS will be sufficiently operational to process tax returns and issue refunds. First, amidst a more general increase in vishing, users' inboxes were flooded with ominous warnings about alleged voice mails from the IRS. Second, as in previous years malicious actors were targeting accounting firms and legal practices that specialize in tax matters, pretending to be new clients looking for help with tax preparation and related issues. While the goal of these phishing emails is often to draw targeted employees into a back-and-forth that provides a pretext for malicious actors to hit potential marks with malicious Office documents that often install sophisticated backdoor trojans, in some cases the bad guys do not wait, offering up malicious links and attachments in the initial email.
According to Danny Palmer at ZDNet: "A cyber espionage campaign is targeting national security think tanks and academic institutions in the US in what's believed to be an intelligence gathering operation by a hacking group working out of North Korea. A series of spear-phishing attacks using fake emails with malicious attachments attempts to deliver a new family of malware, dubbed BabyShark. The campaign started in November and remained active at least into the new year.
In voice phishing, the phisher makes phone calls to the user and asks the user to dial a number. The purpose is to get personal information of the bank account through the phone. Vishing is mostly done with a fake caller ID.
Most popular Internet browsers can be customized with anti-phishing toolbars. Such toolbars run quick checks on the sites that you are visiting and compare them to lists of known phishing sites. If you stumble upon a malicious site, the toolbar will alert you about it. This is just one more layer of protection against phishing scams, and it is completely free.
There are plenty of reasons to use antivirus software. Special signatures that are included with antivirus software guard against known technology workarounds and loopholes. Just be sure to keep your software up to date. New definitions are added all the time because new scams are also being dreamed up all the time.Anti-spyware and firewall settings should be used to prevent phishing attacks and users should update the programs regularly. Firewall protection prevents access to malicious files by blocking the attacks. Antivirus software scans every file which comes through the Internet to your computer. It helps to prevent damage to your system.
In a new phishing scam, cybercriminals send an email claiming that important emails are being withheld from your inbox. The email instructs you to click a link to log in and confirm your account. This link will redirect you to a spoofed login page that displays a Google Translate banner. This banner claims that text on this page has been translated into your language and makes the page look legitimate. If you enter your login credentials, cybercriminals will use them to access your account and steal your sensitive information.
Spear phishing is a phishing attack that targets a specific person and appears to come from a trusted source. One of the easiest ways for cybercriminals to find a target is through social media. Spear phishing attacks on social media often come from fake accounts, but in a recent scam, cybercriminals used real, compromised accounts. After hijacking an account, cybercriminals impersonated that person and targeted their friends and followers.
In a recent phishing scam, scammers told users that they have violated copyright laws and must take immediate action to protect their account. The scammers claim that the content the user posted, such as an Instagram photo or a YouTube video, violates copyright law. Users are told that they must immediately click a link to protect their account from suspension or deactivation. However, in a recent version of this scam, the scammers are trying to get you on the phone with a fake support tech.
The way this scam works is that scammers send a fake Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) complaint that informs users about a potential copyright violation. The user is told that they can click a link to see the original copyright complaint or they can call a phone number to contact technical support. When the user tries to click the complaint link, they are taken to an error page. This error page is used to pressure the user into calling the free, fraudulent phone number instead. Once the user calls, the fake technical support team uses social engineering tactics to pressure the users into revealing sensitive information.
Access to the COVID-19 vaccine is limited, which leaves many people anxiously waiting for a way to further protect themselves from the virus. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of this anxiety with vaccine-themed phishing emails.A recent phishing attack in the UK spoofs the National Health Service (NHS). The phishing email claims that you have the opportunity to get vaccinated and it includes a link to accept the invitation. If you click on the link, a convincing NHS look-alike page opens. The phony site asks for personal information such as your name, address, and phone number, along with your credit card and banking details. Unfortunately, any information that you provide here goes straight to the cybercriminals and you are not in line for vaccination.Follow these tips to stay safe from similar scams:
At first glance, this looks like a link to example.com with some parameters after it. In real life, the attacker domain might be disguised using URL encoding and buried in a long string of additional parameters. Fooled by the trustworthy appearance of the link, users are more likely to fall for the phishing scam.
Spear phishing differs from phishing in that it targets a specific department, division or college, seeking unauthorized access to protected information. These messages allegedly come from IT support staff or other professionals in a position of authority from within the targeted department, division or college. As with phishing, these e-mails will attempt to trick users into divulging personal or financial information, or their credentials, or entice them into clicking on a link that could install malware on the computer. 2ff7e9595c
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