either revenue agency and encouraging individuals to open files corrupted with malware . These scam emails use tax transcripts as baitAttack.Phishingto enticeAttack.Phishingusers to open the attachments . The scam is particularly problematic for businesses or government agencies whose employees open the malware infected attachments , putting the entire network at risk . This software is complex and may take several months to remove . This well-known malware , known as Emotet , generally poses asAttack.Phishingspecific banks or financial institutions to trickAttack.Phishingindividuals into opening infected documents . It has been described as one of the most costly and destructive malware to date . Emotet is known to constantly evolve , and in the past few weeks has masqueraded asAttack.Phishingthe IRS , pretending to beAttack.Phishing“ IRS Online. ” The scam email includes an attachment labeledAttack.Phishing“ Tax Account Transcript ” or something similar , with the subject line often including “ tax transcript. ” Both DOR and IRS have several tips to help individuals and businesses not fall prey to email scams : Remember , DOR and the IRS do not contact customers via email to share sensitive documents such as a tax transcript . Use security software to protect against malware and viruses , and be sure it ’ s up-to-date . Never open emails , attachments or click on links when you ’ re not sure of the source . If an individual is using a personal computer and receivesAttack.Phishingan email claiming to beAttack.Phishingthe IRS , it is recommended to delete or forward the email to phishing @ irs.gov orto investigations @ dor.in.gov Business receiving these emails should also be sure to contact the company ’ s technology professionals .
The Internal Revenue Service today warned the public of a tax transcript scheme via a surge of fraudulent emails impersonatingAttack.Phishingthe IRS . The emails offerAttack.Phishingtax transcripts , or the summary of a tax return , as baitAttack.Phishingto enticeAttack.Phishingusers to open documents containing malware . The scam email carries an attachment labeled “ Tax Account Transcript ” or something similar , and the subject line uses some variation of the phrase “ tax transcript. ” The IRS said the scamAttack.Phishingis especially problematic for businesses whose employees might open the malware because it can spread throughout the network and potentially take months to successfully remove . Known as Emotet , the well-known malware generally poses asAttack.Phishingspecific banks and financial institutions in its effort to trickAttack.Phishingpeople into opening infected documents . However , in the past few weeks , the scamAttack.Phishinghas been masquerading asAttack.Phishingthe IRS , pretending to beAttack.Phishingfrom “ IRS Online. ” The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team ( US-CERT ) issued a warning in July about earlier versions of the Emotet in Alert ( TA18-201A ) Emotet Malware . US-CERT has labeled the Emotet Malware “ among the most costly and destructive malware affecting state , local , tribal , and territorial ( SLTT ) governments , and the private and public sectors. ” The IRS reminds taxpayers it does not send unsolicited emails to the public , nor would it email a sensitive document such as a tax transcript . Taxpayers should not open the email or the attachment . If using a personal computer , delete or forward the scam email to phishing @ irs.gov . If seen while using an employer ’ s computer , notify the company ’ s technology professionals .
One needs to be always aware of Tax Scams , including tax refund scams , which are carried out by scamsters who pretend to beAttack.Phishingfrom the IRS of USA , HMRC of UK , CRA of Canada , Income Tax Department of India and such . Scamsters contactAttack.Phishingyou via fake emails , phone calls , recorded message , SMS , etc , and either scare you with the possibility of some legal action or enticeAttack.Phishingyou with a tax refund ! Every tax season , Tax Scams start doing the rounds . Emails , Phone calls , or recorded messages by cybercriminals impersonatingAttack.Phishingauthentic tax agents have become an order of the day and continue to remain a major threat to taxpayers . The scam artists use sinister designs that threaten police arrest , deportation , and even license revocation . With the increases in its popularity , fraudsters are also busy finding more ways to increase efficiency . Earlier , the major targets were elderly people and immigrant population . Slowly , the focus has shifted to methods that rely on auto-dialers , robocalling , and voice mail messages to hit as many taxpayers as possible . The story begins with an automated call . It plays a recorded message warning you that it ’ s “ the final notice ” from the tax agency such as the Internal Revenue Service , Indian Income Tax Department , HM Revenue and Customs , or the Tax department of your country . Or it could begin with an email . In any case , the recorded voice or email purports to beAttack.Phishingfrom tax inspector and goes on to specify about the course of action , the agency is likely to follow against you like , planning a lawsuit against you , and if you don ’ t return this call , you could land up in jail , soon . Attacks , such as these use fear as baitAttack.Phishingor the lureAttack.Phishingof a tax refund on the other hand . They rely on social engineering tactics . One such message tells recipients that there ’ s a pending law enforcement action against them as they have evaded tax . It is mainly used to target U.S. taxpayers . The scam pretends to contain information about a subpoena . It could contain a web link which it wants you to click . The link could take you to a fraudulent website . Or the email could include an attachment . The file is a “ document file ” that Microsoft Word opens in Protected View . It contains an instruction to Enable Editing . If the Enable Editing button is clicked , malicious Macros in the ‘ document ’ downloads a malware . So one needs to always exercise utmost caution in either of the cases .
The Russian hacking group blamed for targeting U.S. and European elections has been breaking intoAttack.Databreachemail accounts , not only by trickingAttack.Phishingvictims into giving up passwords , but by stealingAttack.Databreachaccess tokens too . It 's sneaky hack that 's particularly worrisome , because it can circumvent Google 's 2-step verification , according to security firm Trend Micro . The group , known as Fancy Bear or Pawn Storm , has been carrying out the attackAttack.Phishingwith its favored tactic of sending outAttack.Phishingphishing emails , Trend Micro said in a report Tuesday . The attackAttack.Phishingworks by sending outAttack.Phishinga fake email , pretending to beAttack.Phishingfrom Google , with the title “ Your account is in danger. ” An example of a phishing email that Fancy Bear has usedAttack.Phishing. The email claims that Google detected several unexpected sign-in attempts into their account . It then suggests users install a security application called “ Google Defender. ” However , the application is actually a ruse . In reality , the hacking group is trying to dupeAttack.Phishingusers into giving up a special access token for their Google account , Trend Micro said . Victims that fall for the scheme will be redirected to an actual Google page , which can authorize the hacking group 's app to view and manage their email . Users that click “ allow ” will be handing over what ’ s known as an OAuth token . Although the OAuth protocol does n't transfer over any password information , it 's designed to grant third-party applications access to internet accounts through the use of special tokens . In the case of Fancy Bear , the hacking group has leveraged the protocol to buildAttack.Phishingfake applications that can foolAttack.Phishingvictims into handing over account access , Trend Micro said . “ After abusing the screening process for OAuth approvals , ( the group ’ s ) rogue application operatesAttack.Phishinglike every other app accepted by the service provider , ” the security firm said . Even Google 's 2-step verification , which is designed to prevent unwarranted account access , ca n't stop the hack , according to Trend Micro . Google 's 2-step verification works by requiring not only a password , but also a special code sent to a user 's smartphone when logging in . Security experts say it 's an effective way to protect your account . However , the phishing schemeAttack.Phishingfrom Fancy Bear manages to sidestep this security measure , by trickingAttack.Phishingusers into granting access through the fake Google security app . Google , however , said it takes many steps to protect users from such phishing attacksAttack.Phishing. `` In addition , Google detects and reviews potential OAuth abuse and takes down thousands of apps for violating our User Data Policy , such as impersonatingAttack.Phishinga Google app , '' the company said in a statement . `` Note that a real Google app should be directly accessed from a Google site or installed from the Google Play or Apple App stores , '' it added . According to Trend Micro , victims were targeted with this phishing attackAttack.Phishingin 2015 , and 2016 . In addition to Google Defender , Fancy Bear has used other apps under names such as Google Email Protection and Google Scanner . They ’ ve also gone after Yahoo users with apps called Delivery Service and McAfee Email protection . The attackAttack.Phishingattempts to trickAttack.Phishingusers into handing over access to their email through fake Google third-party applications . “ Internet users are urged to never accept OAuth token requests from an unknown party or a service they did not ask for , ” Trend Micro said . Although a password reset can sometimes revoke an OAuth token , it 's best to check what third-party applications are connected to your email account . This can be done by looking at an email account 's security settings , and revoking access where necessary . Fancy Bear is most notorious for its suspected role in hacking the Democratic National Committee last year . However , the group has also been found targeting everything from government ministries , media organizations , along with universities and think tanks , according to Trend Micro .
Google users today were hitAttack.Phishingwith an extremely convincing phishing spreeAttack.Phishinglaunched by attackers who manipulated Google Docs ' legitimate third-party sharing mechanism . Targets receivedAttack.Phishingmessages with the subject like `` [ Sender ] has shared a document on Google Docs with you '' often from senders they knew . The messages contained links , which led to a page that clearly requested access to the user 's Gmail account . If the target user provides access , the attackAttack.Phishingbegins sendingAttack.Phishingspam to all the user 's contacts . Theoretically , the attacker could also accessAttack.Databreachthe victim 's messages and stealAttack.Databreachsensitive data , but thus far there have been no reports of such activity . Because it takes advantage of Google 's legitimate third-party sharing mechanism , the phishing message is much more difficult to identify as malicious . The icons and messaging are familiar to Google users . Gmail itself did not filter the messages as phishingAttack.Phishingor flag them as spam , but rather sent them to Gmail users ' `` Primary '' inbox mail folders . The senders were familiar enough to have the target in their contact lists . One way to spot the attack : some targets report that the message includes a recipient with an address that begins `` hhhhhhhhhhhhhh '' and ends with the domain `` mailinator.com . '' Google responded with a fix and issued a statement : `` We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs , and have disabled offending accounts . We ’ ve removed the fake pages , pushedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates through Safe Browsing , and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofingAttack.Phishingfrom happening again . We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail . If you think you were affected , visit http : //g.co/SecurityCheckup '' Those who have already fallen victim to this attack should also go to their Google account permissions settings and revoke access to the false `` Google Docs '' application . They 're also advised to set up two-factor authentication .
Google said it has disabled offending accounts involved in a widespread spree of phishing emails today impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs . The emails , at the outset , targeted journalists primarily and attempted to trickAttack.Phishingvictims into granting the malicious application permission to access the user ’ s Google account . It ’ s unknown how many accounts were compromisedAttack.Databreach, or whether other applications are also involved . Google advises caution in clicking on links in emails sharing Google Docs . The messages purport to be fromAttack.Phishinga contact , including contacts known to the victim , wanting to share a Google Doc file . Once the “ Open in Docs ” button is clicked , the victim is redirected to Google ’ s OAUTH2 service and the user is prompted to allow the attacker ’ s malicious application , called “ Google Docs , ” below , to access their Google account and related services , including contacts , Gmail , Docs and more . “ We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs , and have disabled offending accounts , ” a Google spokesperson told Threatpost . “ We ’ ve removed the fake pages , pushedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates through Safe Browsing , and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofingAttack.Phishingfrom happening again . We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail. ” OAUTH is an authentication standard that allows a user to authorize third party applications access to an account . The attempt to steal OAUTH tokens is a departure from traditional phishing attacksAttack.Phishingthat target passwords primarily . Once the attacker has accessAttack.Databreachto the victim ’ s account , the phishing message is sentAttack.Phishingalong to the compromised contact list . While this attack is likely the work of a spammer , nation-state attackers including APT28 , aka Fancy Bear or Sofacy , have made use of this tactic . APT28 has been linked to last summer’s attacksAttack.Phishingattempting to influence the U.S. presidential elections . The group has long been targeting political entities , including NATO , and uses phishing emails , backdoors and data-stealing malware to conduct espionage campaigns against its targets . “ I don ’ t believe they are behind this though because this is way too widespread , ” said Jaime Blasco , chief scientist at AlienVault . “ Many people and organizations have received similar attempts , so this is probably something massive and less targeted . ”
Google said it has disabled offending accounts involved in a widespread spree of phishing emails today impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs . The emails , at the outset , targeted journalists primarily and attempted to trickAttack.Phishingvictims into granting the malicious application permission to access the user ’ s Google account . It ’ s unknown how many accounts were compromisedAttack.Databreach, or whether other applications are also involved . Google advises caution in clicking on links in emails sharing Google Docs . The messages purport to be fromAttack.Phishinga contact , including contacts known to the victim , wanting to share a Google Doc file . Once the “ Open in Docs ” button is clicked , the victim is redirected to Google ’ s OAUTH2 service and the user is prompted to allow the attacker ’ s malicious application , called “ Google Docs , ” below , to access their Google account and related services , including contacts , Gmail , Docs and more . “ We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs , and have disabled offending accounts , ” a Google spokesperson told Threatpost . “ We ’ ve removed the fake pages , pushedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates through Safe Browsing , and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofingAttack.Phishingfrom happening again . We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail. ” OAUTH is an authentication standard that allows a user to authorize third party applications access to an account . The attempt to steal OAUTH tokens is a departure from traditional phishing attacksAttack.Phishingthat target passwords primarily . Once the attacker has accessAttack.Databreachto the victim ’ s account , the phishing message is sentAttack.Phishingalong to the compromised contact list . While this attack is likely the work of a spammer , nation-state attackers including APT28 , aka Fancy Bear or Sofacy , have made use of this tactic . APT28 has been linked to last summer’s attacksAttack.Phishingattempting to influence the U.S. presidential elections . The group has long been targeting political entities , including NATO , and uses phishing emails , backdoors and data-stealing malware to conduct espionage campaigns against its targets . “ I don ’ t believe they are behind this though because this is way too widespread , ” said Jaime Blasco , chief scientist at AlienVault . “ Many people and organizations have received similar attempts , so this is probably something massive and less targeted . ”
A massive phishing campaignAttack.Phishingtook place today , but Google 's security staff was on hand and shut down the attacker 's efforts within an hour after users first reported the problem on Reddit . According to multiple reports on Twitter , the attacksAttack.Phishingfirst hitAttack.Phishingjournalists , businesses , and universities , but later spread to many other users as well . The attack itself was quite clever if we can say so ourselves . Victims receivedAttack.Phishinga legitimate ( non-spoofed ) email from one of their friends , that asked them to click on a button to receive access to a Google Docs document . If users clicked the button , they were redirected to the real Google account selection screen , where a fake app titledAttack.Phishing`` Google Docs '' ( not the real one ) asked the user 's permission to authorize it to access the shared document . In reality , the app only wanted access to the user 's Gmail inbox and contact list . After gaining accessAttack.Databreachto these details , the fake app copied the user 's contact list and sentAttack.Phishinga copy of itself to the new set of targets , spreading itself to more and more targets . The email was actually sentAttack.Phishingto `` hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh @ mailinator.com , '' with the user 's email address added as BCC . Following the incident , Mailinator intervened and blocked any new emails from arriving into that inbox . Because of this self-replicating feature , the phishing attackAttack.Phishingspread like wildfire in a few minutes , just like the old Samy worm that devasted MySpace over a decade ago . Fortunately , one Google staff member was visting the /r/Google Reddit thread , and was able to spot a trending topic detailing the phishing campaignAttack.Phishing. The Google engineer forwarded the Reddit thread to the right person , and within an hour after users first complained about the issue , Google had already disabled the fake app 's ability to access the Google OAuth screen . Later on , as engineers had more time to investigate the issue , Google issued the following statement : We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonatingAttack.PhishingGoogle Docs & have disabled offending accounts . We ’ ve removed the fake pages , pushedVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityupdates through Safe Browsing , and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofingAttack.Phishingfrom happening again . We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail . There are no reports that malware was deployed in the phishing attackAttack.Phishing. Cloudflare was also quick to take down all the domains associated with the phishing attackAttack.Phishing. Users that clicked on the button inside the phishing email can go to the https : //myaccount.google.com/permissions page and see if they granted the app permission to access their account . The real Google Docs is n't listed in this section , as it does not need permissions , being an official Google property .
Another presidential election , another massive data dumpAttack.Databreachseemingly intended to sabotage a center-left candidate . But in the case of France 's impending runoff , slated for Sunday , the latest leakAttack.Databreachof emails appears far more slap-dash than the Russian hacks and leaksAttack.Databreachthat plagued Hillary Clinton 's campaign . And in this case , they 're timed to prevent the target of those leaks from even having a chance to respond . On Friday , a collection of links to torrent files appeared on the anonymous publishing site PasteBin . The 9GB trove purports to be an archive of leaked emails from the party of Emmanuel Macron , the left-leaning candidate currently favored to win France 's impending runoff election against far-right opponent Marine Le Pen . The latest data dumpAttack.Databreachcomes less than 48 hours before France 's election , possibly too late to shift its outcome—at least to the degree that the hacks of the DNC and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta did in the months leading up to the US election . Its timing so close to the runoff could still prove strategic , as French law forbids candidates from speaking publicly for two days ahead of an election . That timing could prevent Macron himself from responding to any scandal that surfaces in the data dumpAttack.Databreach, real or fabricated . In a statement , Macron ’ s political party confirmed that hackers had compromisedAttack.Databreachit . `` The En Marche party has been the victim of a massive , coordinated act of hackingAttack.Databreach, in which diverse internal information ( mails , documents , accounting , contracts ) have been broadcast this evening on social networks , '' reads a public statement in French from the Macron campaign . `` The files which are circulating were obtainedAttack.Databreacha few weeks ago thanks to the hackingAttack.Databreachof the professional and personal email accounts of several members of the campaign . '' Late last month , the security firm Trend Micro noted in a report that the Macron campaign appeared to be a target of the Russian-government-linked hacker group Fancy Bear , also known as Pawn Storm or APT 28 . The firm 's researchers found a phishing domain created by the hacker group in March , designed to target the campaign by impersonatingAttack.Phishingthe site that En March uses for cloud data storage . At the time , the Macron campaign claimed that that hacking attempts had failed . On Friday morning , users of the anonymous forum 4Chan had also purported to have published evidence of Macron 's tax evasion , though those claims were also unverified , and it 's not clear if they 're connected to the current leak . In the wake of Russian hackers ' attempt to sway the US election , which remains the subject of two Congressional investigations , the cybersecurity community has warned that the Kremlin may attempt similar tricks to swing elections towards its favored candidates in the French and upcoming German elections , too . Former British intelligence staffer Matt Tait warned that regardless of what it contains , the simple fact of the data dumpAttack.Databreachachieves certain objectives . `` By all means , look through them , '' he wrote on Twitter . `` But do [ so ] with your eyes open and knowing that you 're being played for free negative coverage/headlines . '' The Macron campaign compared the hacking directly to the hacker targeting of Clinton campaign . `` Intervening in the last hour of an official campaign , this operation clearly seeks to destabilize democracy , as already seen in the United States ' last president campaign , '' the statement reads . `` We can not tolerate that the vital interests of democracy are thus endangered . ''
Anonymous hackers have stolen and leakedAttack.Databreach1.9 million email addresses and some 1,700 names and active phone numbers of Bell Canada customers . The company has not shared where the stolen information was stored and how they attackers managed to accessAttack.Databreachit , because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police cyber crime unit ’ s investigation into the matter is still ongoing . But , according to a brief statement , the affected systems have been secured , the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada informed , and affected users notified directly ( either via email or phone ) . “ There is no indication that any financial , password or other sensitive personal information was accessedAttack.Databreach, ” the company noted , and added that the incident is not connected to the recent global WannaCry malware attacksAttack.Ransom. They ’ ve also warned customers to be on the lookout for phishing emails or calls impersonatingAttack.Phishingthe company and asking the customers for credit card or personal information . According to The Globe and Mail , the attackers are threatening to release more of the stolen data , if the telecom company doesn ’ t co-operate with them . It ’ s unclear what they mean by co-operating , but it ’ s more than likely that they ’ ve asked to be paidAttack.Ransomin order not to release the stolen information . Bell Canada has known about the breachAttack.Databreachsince at least last Wednesday , when they notified the commissioner ’ s office of it .