The Weekly Top 3 are the three most relevant news stories for the week that are related to phishing scams and activities reported in the media, security blogs and security magazines on the Internet. This week, we look at phishing activities related to Google, Dropbox and Russian Hackers.
Google stated earlier this week that it will stop serving online advertisements for short-term loans. The company decided to stop these ads because they were considered harmful or misleading and could lead to counterfeit merchandise or phishing sites. These type of ads go against Google's policies with regard to serving advertising content to users. They continued to explain that the company has a responsibility to protect users from harmful financial products, which can result in unaffordable payment plans and high interest rates. These legitimate scams are used to target poor people with money problems, who use Google's search engine for financial advice. Click the link below to read more.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/11/google_kneecaps_payday_loan_ads/
Scammers and hackers are at it again with another Dropbox phishing scam. The phishing scam involved a message that stated someone had shared with the victim a document via Dropbox. It further stated that in order to access the file, the victim would have to click the link in the message. However, instead of taking the victim to the Dropbox website, the link allowed malware to be downloaded onto the victim's computer. Once installed, the malware logged the infected computer's keystrokes so as to steal passwords and other personal information. Click the link below to read more.
http://whnt.com/2016/05/10/dropbox-phishing-alert-old-scam-new-twist/
Earlier this week, cyber attacks have been launched against a German political party, who is affiliated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. These attacks are being coordinated by a hacker group called Pawn Storm. The purpose of this attack was to steal personal and government information from the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). The hackers set up a fake corporate e-mail server so as to send phishing e-mails to party members. The e-mails sent from these servers would be used to steal online account login credentials from the party members. Click the link below to read more.
APHC