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 Rio Olympics, Sainsbury's and phishing fishermen.
The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics is starting very soon and scammers are using the opportunity to cash in before this worldwide event begins. Earlier this week, security researchers discovered an increase in phishing attacks, spam and other scams related to this prestigious event. They stated that scammers are registering domains that contain the words "Rio" and "rio2016" for the purpose of setting up fake websites to steal personal and financial information. Additionally, the phishing e-mails being sent to unsuspecting victims contain PDF document attachments informing them that they have won the lottery. Click the link below to read more.
https://www.hackread.com/rio-olympics-phishing-malware-scams/
Several UK customers of the Sainsbury's Bank received a strange e-mail from the institution confirming purchases for insurance policies. The e-mail claimed that the customer purchased policies for travel, home and car insurance from the Bank. Analysis of the e-mail showed that the branding and format of the e-mails were convincing enough to the recipient, but gave no further details. It appeared that these e-mails could have been the start of a phishing scam. However, Sainsbury's Bank released a statement later that day saying that the e-mail was sent in error and have issued an apology letter to the recipients. Click the link below to read more.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/17/sainsburys_bank_spam_confusion/
For several years, Ukraine has been facing cyberattacks because of the ongoing armed conflict between the government and separatist movements. As a result, security researchers from ESET have uncovered and other cyber-espionage operation by the name of Operation Groundbait. The purpose of this campaign was to target anti-government separatists by infecting their computers with Trojan malware that stole passwords and other sensitive information. This malware was spread using spear phishing e-mails that contained a malicious attachment. When the victim opened this attachment, they were presented with a document price list of fishing ground-bait, while the malware installed itself on the computer. Once installed, the malware logged all the victim's keystrokes which were sent to a remote server controlled by the hackers. Click the link below to read more.
APHC