ESET discovered 13 mobile applications on the Google Play Store that were phishing Attack.Phishing for Instagram credentials and stealing them to a remote server Global cybersecurity provider ESET , claims to have discovered 13 apps on Google Play Store that steal Attack.Databreach Instagram credentials . These apps , as stated by ESET , target Instagram users who are wanting to either manage or boost the number of followers . Under the detection name Android/Spy.Inazigram these 13 applications were phishing Attack.Phishing for Instagram credentials and stealing them to a remote server . ESET claims that these apps seem to have originated from Turkey , some apps used English localization to target Instagram users worldwide and have been installed by 1.5 million users . Post notification by the company the apps were removed from the Google Play Store . To lure Attack.Phishing users into downloading , the apps promised a rapid increase in the number of followers , likes and comments for an Instagram account . The credentials entered into the form were then sent to the attackers ’ server in plain text . The compromised accounts were used to raise follower counts of other users . ESET believes that apart from an opportunity to use compromised accounts for spreading spam and ads , there are various business models in which the most valuable assets are followers , likes and comments . All the applications employed the same technique of harvesting Attack.Databreach Instagram credentials and sending them to a remote server . Interestingly , the Instagram account might appear to have increased following and follower numbers , but the user would be getting replies to comments which have never posted . If the attackers were successful and the user did not recognize the threat upon seeing Instagram ’ s notification , the stolen credentials could be put to further use . The company suggests that users should uninstall the apps from the application manager or use a reliable mobile security solution to remove the threats . Change the Instagram password and if the password is same for other platforms it should be changed as well , as malware authors are known to access other web services using the stolen credentials . When downloading third party applications from Google Play Store , ESET states that users should not use sensitive information and check if the apps can be trusted by checking the popularity of the developer through the number of installs , content of its reviews and ratings .

Cyber crooks have come up with a new way to infect your computer with financial and banking malware . The process starts by randomly sending Attack.Phishing users spam emails disguised as Attack.Phishing a payment confirmation email from Delta Air . The choice to mask the email as coming from Attack.Phishing an airline wasn ’ t random , since many this time of year is when many consumers purchase flight tickets at discounted rates for the summer . However , no transaction actually took place ! The email is designed to scare Attack.Phishing you into thinking someone bought an airplane ticket using your identity . You then panic and click on one of the links in the email in order to figure out how someone could do an unauthorized purchase with your credentials . The links then redirect you to several compromised websites , which host Word documents infected with the Hancitor malware . Hancitor is a versatile malware frequently used in phishing attacks Attack.Phishing that specializes initially infecting a PC , and then acting as a bridge for further malware downloads . If you download the malicious Word document and open it , then Hancitor will activate and infect legitimate system processes in your PC using a PowerShell code . Afterwards , your PC will connect to one or more malicious Command and Control ( C & C ) servers . These C & C servers will then download additional malware on your PC , which belong to the Pony family . Pony malware is specifically designed to steal Attack.Databreach sensitive information such as passwords and usernames from VPNs , web browsers , FTP , messaging apps and many more . On top of that , the C & C servers also download and spread another Pony-based malware called Zloader . Unlike Pony , Zloader is a banking malware designed to clean up Attack.Databreach your bank account and steal Attack.Databreach financial information . Once the information harvesting Attack.Databreach is complete , the malware connects to another set of C & C servers and sends them all of your credentials and financial information .

That ’ s what two security researchers are warning , after finding a Mac-based malware that may be an attempt by Iranian hackers to target the U.S. defense industry . The fake site was previously used in a spear phishing email attack Attack.Phishing to spread Windows malware and is believed to be maintained by Iranian hackers , the researchers claimed . Visitors to the site are greeted with a page about free programs and courses for employees of U.S. defense companies Lockheed Martin , Raytheon , and Boeing . The malware itself can be downloaded from an Adobe Flash installer for a video embedded in the site . The MacDownloader malware was designed to profile the victim 's computer , and then steal Attack.Databreach credentials by generating fake system login boxes and harvesting Attack.Databreach them from Apple 's password management system , Keychain . However , the malware is of shoddy quality and is `` potentially a first attempt from an amateur developer , '' the researchers said .

For all the sophisticated tactics , techniques , and procedures employed by threat actors these days , phishing Attack.Phishing continued to be the top attack vector in 2016 , as it has been for some time . The big difference was that instead of targeting financial services companies , phishers increasingly targeted cloud storage service providers like Google and DropBox , security vendor PhishLabs said in a voluminous report on phishing trends released this week . Compared to 2013 , when barely 10 % of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeted cloud storage services , about 22.5 % of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing last year involved such companies . That was just barely below the 23 % of phishing scams Attack.Phishing involving financial brands , the company noted . What that means is that users are likely going to get more phishing emails this year trying to get them to part with credentials to their cloud storage credentials . `` Over the last four years , the number of phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage services has skyrocketed , '' says Crane Hassold , senior security threat researcher at PhishLabs . `` Based on recent trends , it is likely that phishing attacks Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage services will overtake financial institutions as the top target for phishers in 2017 . '' So far at least , almost all phishing attacks Attack.Phishing impacting this industry have involved only Google and DropBox . Many of the phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing targeting cloud storage providers contain lures Attack.Phishing saying that a document or picture has been shared with the victim and encourage them to sign in to their account in order to view it . A majority of the phishing pages involved in such campaigns Attack.Phishing have really been poor duplicates of the pages used by Google , DropBox , and other legitimate sites . Even so , `` based on the growing popularity of these types of attacks Attack.Phishing , phishers must still be having success compromising victim even with this lack of authenticity , '' Hassold says . The PhishLabs report is based on an analysis of some one million confirmed phishing sites spread across more than 170,000 unique domains , and also from the company ’ s handling of more than 7,800 phishing attacks Attack.Phishing per month in 2016 . The analysis showed an alarming increase across the board in phishing-related activities Attack.Phishing . The number of phishing sites in 2016 , for instance , was 23 % higher than the year before , while the volume of phishing emails grew by an average of 33 % across financial services , cloud storage/file hosting , webmail/online , payment services , and ecommerce sites . PhishLabs identified a total of 976 brands belonging to 568 organizations that cybercriminal used in phishing campaigns Attack.Phishing last year . The kind of data that phishers went after also broadened considerably last year . In addition to account credentials and personal data , phishers also used their phishing lures Attack.Phishing to try and snag financial , employment , and account security data like answers to challenge/response questions and mother ’ s maiden name . Ransomware 's Best Friend In 2016 , phishing Attack.Phishing also continued to be by far the most prevalent method for delivering ransomware on everything from end user systems to systems belonging to businesses , government agencies , schools , and critical infrastructure targets . The use of email as an authentication measure made it easier for phishers to mass harvest Attack.Databreach credentials for all email services on a single phishing site , instead of having to target email providers individually , Hassold says . `` Additionally , because a growing number of Web services are using email as a primary credential , phishers are able to multiply their profits by conducting password reuse attacks against these unsuspecting targets , '' he says . The easy availability of phish kits , or ready-to-use templates for creating working phishing sites , contributed to the problem . Many of these kits included sophisticated anti-detection mechanisms . Mechanisms included access control measures based on IP address , HTTP referrer , and hostname , whitelists , and blocklists . `` The big takeaway is that we ’ ve created ideal conditions for the mass harvesting Attack.Databreach of credentials via phishing attacks Attack.Phishing , '' Hassold notes . Unlike in the past where phishers were focused on immediate gains—by going after and selling access to financial accounts for instance—they are now trying to maximize the information they can compromise with the least effort .