Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) is a fast-growing phenomenon in the cyberthreats world, getting armed with tools that make it more and more prosperous.
It has opened up the online fraud market to the masses, to the point that phishing attempts have become a daily plague.
Find in this new “5 minutes to understand” document, available for download on the Nameshield’s website, how phishing is now sold in ready-to-use kit and how to protect against it.
Important: information relating to the situation in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
In response to the evolving geopolitical situation in Ukraine, many SSL certification authorities are suspending the issuance and reissuance of all types of certificates affiliated with Russia and Belarus.
This includes suspending issuance and reissuance of certificates to TLDs related to Russia and Belarus, including .ru, .su, .by, .рф, as well as to organizations with addresses in Russia or Belarus. We will keep you informed as soon as the situation returns to normal.
Also, we observe a significant increase in phishing attacks. We advise you to be extra vigilant, especially when it comes to new domain name registrations using your trademarks.
Nameshield remains of course at your disposal to accompany and advise you in this complex context.
On last May 10th, in a press release, the Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PSE) organization, owner of the NBA’s basketball team the Indiana Pacers, revealed that they were the victim of a sophisticated phishing attack at the end of 2018.
For reminder, phishing is a technique used to obtain personal information in order to commit an identity theft. This is a «social engineering» technique, i.e. consisting in exploiting not an IT flaw but a «human flaw» by deceiving web users through an e-mail seemingly coming from a trustworthy company, typically a bank or a business website.
At the end of 2018, the company PSE has then been the target of a phishing emails campaign resulting in the unauthorized access to emails containing personal information related to a limited number of individuals.
This cyberattack affected a limited number of individuals but the amount of the stolen information is important: name, address, date of birth, passport number, driver’s license, state identification number, account number, credit/debit card number, digital signature, username and password and for some individuals, the Social Security number.
The American company has quickly implemented measures to secure the affected email accounts and investigate the incident with the assistance of forensic experts. This investigation then revealed that the hackers had access to the accounts of a limited number of persons between October 15th and December 4th, 2018. The press release doesn’t give any details regarding the identity of the targeted persons.
PSE individually notified each victim whose information has been stolen and assures that “to date, PSE has no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of any personal information”. The organization offered to the victims of the cyberattack an access to credit monitoring and identity protection services at no cost.
Phishing attacks are increasing. Above all, they are becoming more and more sophisticated, and target all kinds of industries. Each and every one of us must be extra vigilant.
Lastly, for reminder, here are some simple rules to protect yourself against phishing attempts:
![Game of Thrones: The return of the [MALWARES] white walkers by dozens](https://blog.nameshield.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Game-of-Thrones-Le-retour-des-malwares-M.jpg)
As with each event where massive interest is expected, the launch of the final season of Game of Thrones is a golden opportunity for pirates.
According to a Kaspersky’ study, this series would be the favorite of the cybercriminals. It represented 17% of the infected contents last year, i.e. 20 934 web users! According to this same study, the most targeted episodes are logically the first and last episodes of the season.
For if the fans are many in France, without subscription, the only solution to watch the so awaited episodes is illegal downloading on torrent websites.
It is through this means that the cybercriminals infect the unsuspecting web users’ computers. First warning, do not install programs at the request of the torrent websites, they can contain a malware!
Indeed, two kinds of frauds are principally used:
This season, the cybercriminals are almost as creative as the scriptwriters of the successful series: many and various fake contests allow these hackers to collect email addresses and other bank details.
Counterfeiting is also in the game, with an observed increase of websites proposing many so-called “official” products but being nothing more than counterfeits.
Thus, Nameshield recommends to the fans to be highly vigilant!
For reminder, here are the basic principles to respect in order to serenely navigate and not be trapped by unscrupulous hackers:
As always on the web, an extra vigilance is needed, because if spring wins our regions, don’t forget that on the web, winter is coming…
Phishing is cybercriminals’ means of choice to hijack users‘ data, posing as a trusty company and then encouraging them to deliver personal information. We are often more inclined to think that this technique is reserved to hackers who try to steal banking or very sensitive information, and yet!
An American student of Ygnacio Valley High School, in California, had a great time reproducing identically the website on which his teachers connect to enter marks and comments. This same student then emailed his teachers to connect to the fake school’s interface, which looked exactly the same as the original one. Thus, he could retrieve their login ID and passwords, and used them in order to raise his grades but also to lower his classmates’ grades.
Arrested by the police, the student said that what he had done was “as easy as stealing a candy from a baby”. Expelled from school, he was identified thanks to his computer IP address.
Quite light in consequence, this data corruption attempt highlights the simplicity of access to this hacking means. Today, phishing is one of the most popular methods and the easiest to implement. Web users, while unaware and fooled by similarities, consequently provide personal, sometimes very sensitive data.
![Game of Thrones: The return of the [MALWARES] white walkers by dozens](https://blog.nameshield.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Game-of-Thrones-Le-retour-des-malwares-M-1200x675.jpg)
