Archive for author: makoadmin

In the last week, we’ve seen multiple coronavirus scams pushed by bad actors, including RAT attacks via fake health advisories, bogus e-books working in tandem with Trojans, and lots of other phishing shenanigans. Now we have another one to add to the ever-growing list: dubious coronavirus Bitcoin missives landing in your inbox.

Reworking a classic spam tactic

This is a retooling of an older spam run involving British comedian Jim Davidson, the older form of which was seen bouncing around in November 2019. As they put it, “Jim Davidson bounced back from bankruptcy with Bitcoin.” Even before that, in the first half of 2019, he was being used alongside other well-known British celebrities such as Jamie Oliver and daytime TV presenters to promote a variety of misleading Bitcoin get-rich schemes. This is common for Bitcoin scams, and you can dip into any year you like and find a few of these floating around at any given time.

What do we have this time?

In short, these coronavirus Bitcoin scams are older attempts to have people part with their cash hastily retooled to make hay with the current global pandemic. It’s incredibly lazy—the landing pages and follow on websites seem to be untouched from whenever they first appeared. The only new ingredient is the email content mentioning coronavirus, but sadly, that’s often more than enough to have people part with their money.

Click to enlarge

It begins with a non-stop drip-feed of emails, from many different addresses pumping out spam. In the above mailbox, it’s a total of 11 in six days. All of the email addresses are rather optimistically called “coronavirus positives”, letting you know that staying at home thanks to a global pandemic can actually make you rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Some of the subject lines read as follows:

Staying at home because of COVID-19!! Spend your time making thousands on Bitcoins. 

The positive impact of staying home (Corona-virus), Make thousand a day trading Bitcoin.

Join 1000s of Brits making 1000s a day. Bitcoin is back – and this time you can make a million.

Without a larger sample selection to go from, we can’t say which missive is the most popular subject line, but the one mentioning “work from home” is at least the most popular in this particular mailbox and a few others that we’ve seen. 

Coronavirus Bitcoin email style

The emails are formatted in much the same way, emulating the British newspaper “red top” style—most specifically, The Sun.

Here’s the text from one of the samples we looked at:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The text reads as follows:

Jim Davidson Reveals How He Bounced Back After The Bankruptcy – He claims anyone can do it & shows ‘Good Morning Britain’ How!

Appearing on ‘Good Morning Britain’ show, Jim Davidson, a man who has recovered from Bankruptcy thanks to an automated Bitcoin trading platform, called BTC Profit . The idea was simple: allow the average person the opportunity to cash in on the Bitcoin boom. Even if they have absolutely no investing or technology experience.

A user would simply make an initial deposit into the platform, usually of £200 (or $250, as the platform works with USD) or more, and the automated trading algorithm would go to work. Using a combination of data and machine learning, the algorithm would know the perfect time to buy Bitcoin low and sell high, maximising the user’s profit.

To demonstrate the power of the platform Jim had Kate Garraway deposited £200 on the live show.

Here’s one that emulates The Sun to a high degree, complete with almost-but-not-quite name using the same font as the well-known newspaper:

Click to enlarge

In the above mail, a student reveals how “he earns more than £40,000 every month working from home.” Some of the links are now seemingly broken, and a few redirect to Google or random shopping sites such as the below if you presumably visit from a region they’re not interested in:

Click to enlarge

Not all of the links are broken, however. A few will indeed lead you to the supposed Bitcoin promised land.

Getting rich quick?

What you’ll see on a live page is essentially a rehash of the information in the email, complete with a few more familiar faces from UK daytime television. At this point, the coronavirus hook has been entirely abandoned:

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

After a lot of urging the visitor to sign up to some sort of wonderful Bitcoin system, clicking the links will finally take them to the end game:

Click to enlarge

It’s a landing page promoting something called “Bitcoin Revolution.” This has been around for a while, usually in relation to dubious ads featuring the previously mentioned celebrities.

Access is given to a trading platform, a fair amount of money is deposited into it over time, an “investment manager” asks you to deposit their commission into a bank account so they can release your funds, and…oh dear. This is the part where people report the funds never arrive and now they’re massively out of pocket.

Profiting from chaos

Endlessly spamming these “get rich quick” emails to people in normal circumstances is bad enough, but jumping on the coronavirus bandwagon to claim people can make a fortune from working from home is dreadful. This is absolutely the worst time to end up losing a significant amount of savings—they may prove to be absolutely essential further down the line.

If you receive one of these mails and they’re not automatically placed into your spam folder, report, delete, and move on. We have a feeling you won’t be making your millions from this one.

The post Coronavirus Bitcoin scam promises “millions” working from home appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Update: Following our blog post, we continued to monitor the Tupperware website. As of 03/25 at 1:45 PM PT, we noticed that the malicious PNG file had been removed, followed later by the JavaScript that was present on the homepage.

On March 20, Malwarebytes identified a targeted cyberattack against household brand Tupperware and its associated websites that is still active today. We attempted to alert Tupperware immediately after our discovery, but none of our calls or emails were answered.

Threat actors compromised the official tupperware[.]com site—which averages close to 1 million monthly visits—as well as a few of its localized versions by hiding malicious code within an image file that activates a fraudulent payment form during the checkout process. This form collects customer payment data via a digital credit card skimmer and passes it on to the cybercriminals with Tupperware shoppers none-the-wiser.

Digital credit card skimmers, also known as web skimmers, continue to be one of the top web threats we monitor at Malwarebytes. For the past several years, a number of criminals (usually tied to organized Magecart groups) have been actively compromising e-commerce platforms with the goal of stealing payment data from unaware shoppers.

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, the volume of people shopping online has dramatically increased, and there is little doubt that a larger number of transactions will be impacted by credit card skimmers moving forward.

There was a fair amount of work put into the Tupperware compromise to integrate the credit card skimmer seamlessly and stay undetected for as long as possible. Below, we walk you through how we discovered the skimmer, and analyze the threat and its attack techniques.

Rogue iframe container

During one of our web crawls, we identified a suspicious-looking iframe loaded from deskofhelp[.]com when visiting the checkout page at tupperware[.]com. This iframe is responsible for displaying the payment form fields presented to online shoppers.

There are a few red flags with this domain name:

• It was created on March 9, and as we see with many fraudulent websites, newly-registered domains are often used by threat actors prior to a new campaign.
• It is registered to elbadtoy@yandex[.]ru, an email address with Russian provider Yandex. This seems at odds for a payment form on a US-branded website.
• It is hosted on a server at 5.2.78[.]19 alongside a number of phishing domains.

Interestingly, if you were to inspect the checkout page’s HTML source code, you would not see this malicious iframe. That’s because it is loaded dynamically in the Document Object Model (DOM) only.

One way to reveal this iframe is to right click anywhere within the payment form and choose “View frame source” (in Google Chrome). It will open up a new tab showing the content loaded by deskofhelp[.]com.

There is one small flaw in the integration of the credit card skimmer: The attackers didn’t carefully consider (or perhaps didn’t care about) how the malicious form should look on localized pages. For example, the Spanish version of the Tupperware site is written in Spanish, but the rogue payment form is still in English:

Below is the legitimate form (in Spanish):

More trickery to dupe shoppers

The criminals devised their skimmer attack so that shoppers first enter their data into the rogue iframe and are then immediately shown an error, disguised as a session time-out.

This allows the threat actors to reload the page with the legitimate payment form. Victims will enter their information a second time, but by then, the data theft has already happened.

Upon close inspection, we see the fraudsters even copied the session time-out message from CyberSource, the payment platform used by Tupperware. The legitimate payment form from CyberSource includes a security feature where, if a user is inactive after a certain amount of time, the payment form is cancelled and a session time-out message appears. Note: we contacted Visa who owns CyberSource to report this abuse as well.

You can still spot a slight difference between the legitimate time-out page (loaded from secureacceptance.cybersource.com) and the fake one. The former contains the text “Session timed out” in bold, black text while the latter features gray text that is both smaller and a different font.

The stolen data is sent to the same domain used to host the rogue iframe. Fraudsters are now in possession of the following data from unaware shoppers:

• First and last name
• Billing address
• Telephone number
• Credit card number
• Credit card expiry date
• Credit card CVV

Another case of steganography

In order to identify how the card skimmer attack worked, we needed to go back a few steps and examine all web resources loaded by tupperware[.]com, including image files.

This process can be time-consuming but is necessary to figure how the rogue iframe is injected. We found a snippet of code on the homepage that dynamically calls an FAQ icon from Tupperware’s server, which is loaded silently (and is therefore not visible to shoppers). The image contains a malformed PNG file that is quite suspicious.

Looking at this file using a hex editor, we can see the different sections of the image. While IEND should mark the end of the file, after some blank spaces, there is a large JavaScript blurb that includes several parts which have been encoded.

At this point, we did not yet know what the code was meant to do, but we could tell it was some kind of steganographic attack, a technique we observed in web skimmers late last year. One way to find out is to debug the JavaScript code, despite the malware author’s attempts to crash the debugger.

Once we got past that hurdle, we could finally confirm that the code embedded in this PNG image is responsible for loading the rogue iframe at the checkout page:

There is additional code so that the skimmer is loaded seamlessly and covertly. The threat actors are actually hiding the legitimate, sandboxed payment iframe by referencing its ID and using the {display:none} setting.

The fake payment form is also referenced so that it fits in its place and looks exactly the same (except on localized versions). This required some effort from the fraudsters to mimic the same style and functionality.

The domain deskofhelp[.]com contains a set of JavaScript, CSS, and image files to that effect, and of course, the code to check for and exfiltrate the payment data.

Site compromise

One question we haven’t answered yet is how the malicious PNG image is loaded. We know that the embedded JavaScript loads code dynamically in the DOM, but something needs to call that PNG file first, and that would have to be visible in the HTML source code.

To make identification slightly more difficult, the code has been broken down. However, we can reconstruct it and see how the URL loading the PNG file is built by using string concatenation, for instance.

This code is helpful to determine a time frame for when the website compromise happened. Although we don’t have archives, we know from external sources, such as this WayBackMachine crawl, that the code was not present in February. The hack most likely happened after March 9, which is when the malicious domain deskofhelp[.]com became active.

We do not know exactly how Tupperware got hacked, but a scan via Sucuri’s SiteCheck shows that they may be running an outdated version of the Magento Enterprise software.

Disclosure and protection

Upon identifying this compromise, we called Tupperware on the phone several times, and also sent messages via email, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, at time of publication, we still have not heard back from the company and the site remains compromised.

Malwarebytes users are protected against this attack, including those running our free Browser Guard extension.

We will update this blog if we receive any additional information.

Indicators of compromise

Malicious PNG file hosted on Tupperware sites (US and Canada):

tupperware[.]com/media/wysiwyg/faq_icon.png
es.tupperware[.]com/media/wysiwyg/faq_icon.png

tupperware[.]ca/media/wysiwyg/faq_icon.png
fr.tupperware[.]ca/media/wysiwyg/faq_icon.png

SHA-256 of malicious PNG

d00f6ff0ea2ad33f8176ff90e0d3326f43209293ef8c5ea37a3322eceb78dc2e

Skimmer infrastructure

deskofhelp[.]com
5.2.78[.]19

The post Criminals hack Tupperware website with credit card skimmer appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

A version of this article originally appeared in Forbes on February 12, 2020.

Consumerization: The specific impact that consumer-originated technologies can have on enterprises. 

Gartner

More and more, enterprises are coming to understand that they need to adopt the agile processes and product strategies of startups in order to compete in today’s markets. But there is a parallel problem in enterprise security that is not being addressed. Simply tweaking your internal processes won’t solve this problem: A different approach is needed.

We read the stories every day. The number and severity of cyberattacks keep growing. More and more businesses are being breached more and more often—and it’s happening in schools, hospitals and clinics, and major cities, too.

For example, in December 2019, the city of New Orleans told employees to “power down computers, unplug devices, and disconnect from Wi-Fi” after a cyberattack struck its computers. Although 911 emergency services were not affected, the police department had to shut down its entire IT network.

Increasingly, we see governments, organizations, and enterprises struggling to keep up with cyberattacks. And, disturbingly, they are increasingly failing to stop them.

The fact is, agile processes and improved efficiency won’t solve the growing security problem. Nor will throwing more personnel at it. That’s what organizations are attempting now, and it’s not working. Businesses are falling behind the attackers. Something has to change.

What is needed is a new way of thinking about security.

When you get millions of alerts, and you respond by looking for more trained technicians to troubleshoot the alerts, you’re pursuing a faulty strategy. For one, you won’t find the talent. For another, the strategy doesn’t scale. As you add security tools and staff, you multiply the complexity of your security operation. What you need is to reduce the complexity.

It’s helpful to step back and ask, “What would a desirable, effective security solution look like?” I suggest that it should be as intuitive as using an iPhone app.

“Hold on,” you say. “The IT market is not like the consumer market. There are different problems to solve, unique expectations to meet, and technical skillsets required to operate.” And that’s all true. But that’s just a description of the challenges inherent with the old model of security thinking.

Consider the security and privacy challenges in the consumer space. Consumer products have to be easy to use, or they won’t sell—particularly for a problem that is mostly invisible to the consumer (until it bites them). Security tools need to be easy enough for consumers to use, yet powerful enough to give them ownership of their privacy and security. That’s hard to achieve, but consumer software development is all about empowering users without overwhelming them with complexity.

And that has to be the goal in the enterprise as well. It should be just as easy for a company to protect itself and have a strong cybersecurity posture as it is for a consumer to use an app. Organizations should strive for top protection using fewer staff members that require specialized training. That should be the target of enterprise security solutions.

We call this goal the democratization, or consumerization, of cybersecurity. It’s the right goal in today’s market. It’s also quite difficult. To write robust cybersecurity products that provide organizations with comprehensive coverage and are as simple to use as consumer technology is so difficult that no one has been up to the task.

It’s easy to generate a new security tool that handles lots and lots of alerts. But making it prioritize threats so that you only address real dangers while simplifying user interface so that it doesn’t require extensive training—that’s the hard part. And that’s what we’re talking about when we refer to the consumerization of IT security.

It reminds me of the famous saying by French mathematician Blaise Pascal, which is often attributed to Mark Twain: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” Simple is hard.

But it can be done. We know what consumer-grade tools look like. And we know what cybersecurity challenges businesses face. The task before us as an industry is to fit these two puzzle pieces together. It will require greater attention to user interface design and highly-automated threat detection. It will call for combining technical excellence with human intuition. But it can be done.

The consumerization of IT security—consumer-grade ease of use, plus enterprise security expertise—can meet the cybersecurity challenges of today.

The post Consumerization: a better way to answer cybersecurity challenges appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

End-of-life (EOL) is an expression commonly used by software vendors to indicate that a product or version of a product has reached the end of usefulness in the eyes of the vendor. Many companies, including Microsoft, announce the EOL dates for their products far in advance.

Every Windows product has a lifecycle. The lifecycle begins when a product is released and ends when it’s no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this lifecycle helps you make informed decisions about when to update, upgrade, or make other changes to your software.

Windows 7 EOL

For those that were unaware, Windows 7 reached EOL on January 14, 2020. When a Windows Operating System (OS) hits the end of its lifecycle, it no longer receives updates from Microsoft.

That means Microsoft no longer supports users of Windows 7, and Windows 7 will no longer receive updates, although Microsoft has been known to make exceptions for urgent vulnerabilities. And while organizations may be able to extend support by paying for it, home users are advised to move on to more modern operating systems.

Or as Microsoft puts it:

“Now is the time to shift to Windows 10. Get robust security features, enhanced performance, and flexible management to keep your employees productive and secure.”

And of course, they have a point. If cybercriminals discover a vulnerability in Windows 7, there is no guarantee that this vulnerability will be patched by Microsoft. And while there is still a large Windows 7 user base, it pays off for the cybercriminals to weaponize such a vulnerability and use it to their advantage. Keep in mind that most of the exploit kits active in the wild focus on older vulnerabilities, which will not be patched if you are using EOL software.

Is Windows 10 more secure?

While the call to move on to Windows 10 by Microsoft makes it sound mighty safe, what exactly are these security features that Windows 10 has over Windows 7? We know it’ll be supported by Microsoft, and therefore any known vulnerabilities will be patched. Its other security features are as follows:

• Windows 10 includes Windows Defender by default, which provides a baseline level of antivirus protection.
• SmartScreen is a reputation system that tries to block harmful and unknown file downloads.
• Windows 10 includes Microsoft Edge instead of Internet Explorer, which is targeted most often by exploits.

On the downside, you might argue that Windows 10 has a lot of new features that tend to come with new problems and risks. However, Windows 10 has been around for a while now, so the worst problems should have been tackled.

However, we want to stress: Moving on to a new operating system, while safer than sticking with a legacy system, is no substitute for a strong security solution. Even Windows 10 machines need anti-malware protection.

According to a spokesperson from our malware removal staff, the correlation between browser use and malware is actually higher than the one between OS version and malware. Meaning: The browser you use has a much bigger impact on the likelihood of being infected than the OS that you use. So even if you switch over to Windows 10 but keep using Google Chrome, you can still be easily infected. Now that Windows 10 has switched over to Edge, many cybercriminals are focusing on exploits for Google Chrome, one of the most popular browsers today.

Other operating systems

To avoid potential infection—or because they’re looking for a change— some Windows users might consider moving to entirely different operating systems, such as Mac or Linux. But layering up built-in protection with security software is important, even if you decide to switch.

For example, the long-standing myth that Macs are safer than Windows systems has been proven wrong. As you can read in our 2020 State of Malware Report, Mac threats increased exponentially in comparison to those against Windows PCs in 2019, with nearly double the threats per Mac endpoint than Windows. And while Macs don’t get viruses, Mac adware is more sophisticated and dangerous than traditional Mac malware.

In some cases, people may consider switching to a Chromebook, which is certainly a cheaper option if it offers enough capabilities to replace your current Windows desktop or laptop. But even Chromebooks can—and do—get infected.

We don’t expect a lot of users to switch to a more hardcore Linux OS, since they might expect a huge learning curve (another misconception) or their favorite software is not available (unfortunately, not a myth). However, even if they do, Linux OSes are not free from malware. They’re simply attacked less often because cybercriminals understand their user base isn’t as large (and therefore, their payday isn’t as big).

Windows 7 user base

Currently over 23 percent of Windows users worldwide are still on Windows 7, and only 69 percent have already switched to Windows 10. The rest are using the less popular Windows 8 or versions of Windows that have gone EOL long before Windows 7.

Oddly enough, the percentage of Windows 7 users has hardly decreased after reaching the EOL date in January (from roughly 24 percent to 23 percent). With this huge amount of potentially unpatched systems still active in the market, any exploitable vulnerability will result in a widespread disaster.

Would WannaCry have had such an enormous impact if Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 had been abandoned before it spread? We will never know. What we do know that Windows 8 and 10 did not need to be patched for the vulnerability that was used to spread WannaCry. They were not contributing to the choir of systems trying to infect their neighbors. Emergency patches were released for several older Windows versions, including Windows 7. At the time, Windows 7 was still supported.

We got you

It is not our habit to promote our own products in our blogs, but we wanted to let you know that whichever OS (and browser) you chose next, we’ve your back. As a demonstration, here is a list of the available Malwarebytes consumer versions created to protect our users:

Malwarebytes for Windows

Malwarebytes for Mac

Malwarebytes for Chromebook

Malwarebytes for Android

Malwarebytes for iOS

Malwarebytes Browser Guard (for Firefox and Chrome)

Download links, pricing, and more information, such as a list of our business offerings and customer reviews, can be found on our pricing page.

Stay safe, everyone!

The post Windows 7 is EOL: What next? appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we concluded our series on child identity theft. We also looked into threat actors and campaigns that ride the COVID-19 train, namely the criminal group APT36 and threat actors purporting to be the World Health Organization (WHO) but instead spreading malware. Lastly, we have tips for those who are working at home to stay secure while social distancing.

Other cybersecurity news

• The Iranian government pushed out an app that purported to diagnose COVID-19 to its citizens. It didn’t, but it collected their data and tracked their movements. (Source: Vice)
• Slack was found to have a bug that allows attackers to take over accounts. Thankfully, this has been fixed. (Source: Bleeping Computer)
• Good news! Dozens involved in several money laundering schemes based in Atlanta, such as romance scams, were arrested and charged. (Source: News from the Northern District of Georgia)
• False information surrounding COVID-19 continues to spread on various platforms, including WhatsApp and TikTok. Be careful what you read. (Source: The Washington Post)
• On that vein, Internet giants promised to curb COVID-19 fraud and misinformation. (Source: ZDNet)
• And while you’re sifting through good COVID-19 information versus the bad, be on the lookout for phishing attempts as well. (Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• A report reveals that shadow IoT—IoT devices used by employees that are not supported by their enterprise’s IT department—is prevalent and insecure. (Source: TechCentral)
• MonitorMinor, the latest stalkerware, reared its ugly head. And it’s persistent. (Source: Securelist)
• With a pandemic at play and people losing jobs, opportunistic actors saw a widening pool of potential money mules. (Source: KrebsOnSecurity)
• TrickBot and Emotet were in on the hype as they used the trending COVID-19 news stories to bypass several methods of detection. (Source: Bleeping Computer)

Stay safe, everyone!

The post A week in security (March 16 – 22) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Scammers and malware authors are taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis in full swing. We have seen a number of spam campaigns using COVID-19 as a lure to trick people into installing a variety of malware, but especially data stealers.

As more of us work from home, the need to secure your computer, especially if you are connecting to your company’s network, becomes more important. However, you should be extra careful of bogus security software, especially if it tries to use the coronavirus as a selling point.

Corona antivirus: 100% fake

The latest scam we found is a website (antivirus-covid19[.]site) advertising “Corona Antivirus -World’s best protection.” That’s right, scammers are trying to get you to install a digital antivirus that supposedly protects against the actual COVID-19 virus infecting people across the world.

To add to the nonsense, the site goes on by adding:

Our scientists from Harvard University have been working on a special AI development to combat the virus using a windows app. Your PC actively protects you against the Coronaviruses (Cov) while the app is running.

Infected victims added to BlackNET RAT

Upon installing this application, your computer will be infected with malware. The file, packed with the commercial packer Themida turns your PC into a bot ready to receive commands:

hxxps[://]instaboom-hello[.]site//connection[.]php?data=[removed]
hxxps[://]instaboom-hello[.]site//getCommand[.]php?[removed]
hxxps[://]instaboom-hello[.]site//receive[.]php?command=[removed]

The command and control server hosted at instaboom-hello[.]site reveals the control panel for the BlackNET botnet.

The full source code for this toolkit was published on GitHub a month ago. Some of its features include:

• Deploying DDOS attacks
• Taking screenshots
• Stealing Firefox cookies
• Stealing saved passwords
• Implementing a keylogger
• Executing scripts
• Stealing Bitcoin wallets

Choose the right protection

During this period, it is important to stay safe both at home and online. The number of scams we have seen during these past few weeks shows that criminals will take advantage of any situation, no matter how dire it is.

We recommend that you keep your computer up to date and use extra caution when downloading new programs. Beware of instant notifications and other messages, even if they appear to come from friends.

Malwarebytes users were already protected even though we had not seen this malware sample before, thanks to our Machine learning engine.

We also informed CloudFlare since the threat actors were abusing their service and they took immediate action to flag this website as a phish.

Indicators of compromise

Malicious site

antivirus-covid19[.]site

Bogus corona antivirus

antivirus-covid19[.]site/update.exe

146dd15ab549f6a0691c3a728602ce283825b361aa825521252c94e4a8bd94b4

C2 panel

instaboom-hello[.]site

The post Fake “Corona Antivirus” distributes BlackNET remote administration tool appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Coronavirus has changed the face of the world, restricting countless individuals from dining at restaurants, working from cafes, and visiting their loved ones. But for cybercriminals, this global pandemic is expanding their horizons.

In the past week, Malwarebytes discovered multiple email scams that prey on the fear, uncertainty, and confusion regarding COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. With no vaccine yet developed, and with much of the world undergoing intense social distancing measures and near-total lockdown procedures, threat actors are flooding cyberspace with emailed promises of health tips, protective diets, and, most dangerously, cures. Attached to threat actors’ emails are a variety of fraudulent e-books, informational packets, and missed invoices that hide a series of keyloggers, ransomware, and data stealers.

The problem expands beyond pure phishing scams.

On March 14, Twitter user @dustyfresh published a web tracker that found 3,600 coronavirus- and COVID-19-related hostnames that sprung up in just 24 hours.

On March 17, security researcher and python developer @sshell_ built a tool, hosted by the team at ThugCrowd, that provides real-time scans for potentially malicious, coronavirus-related domains. Just click the link and watch possible scam sites get registered every minute.

Further, RiskIQ reportedly tracked more than 13,000 suspicious, coronavirus-related domains last weekend, and more than 35,000 domains the next day, too.

Much of these numbers mean nothing without real, useful
examples, though. Yes, coronavirus scams and scam sites are out there, but what
do they look like, and how do they work? We’re here to explain.

Here are some of the many email scams that Malwarebytes spotted in the wild, with full details on what they say, what they’re lying about, and what types of malware they’re trying to install on your machines. The good news? Malwarebytes protects against every threat described.

Impersonating the World Health Organization

Earlier this week, we found an email phishing campaign sent by threat actors impersonating the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the premier scientific resources on COVID-19. That campaign, which pushed a fake e-book to victims, delivered malicious code for a downloader called GuLoader. That download is just the first step in a more complex scheme.

As we wrote:

“GuLoader is used to load the real payload, an information-stealing Trojan called FormBook, stored in encoded format on Google Drive. Formbook is one of the most popular info-stealers, thanks to its simplicity and its wide range of capabilities, including swiping content from the Windows clipboard, keylogging, and stealing browser data. Stolen data is sent back to a command and control server maintained by the threat actors.”

Unfortunately, this GuLoader scam is just one of many in which threat actors posed as WHO professionals as a way to trick victims into downloading malicious attachments.

On March 18, we uncovered an email campaign that pushed victims into unwittingly downloading an invasive keylogger called Agent Tesla. The keylogger, which experienced a reported 100 percent increase in activity across three months in 2018, can steal a variety of sensitive data.

As cybersecurity researchers at LastLine wrote: “Acting as a fully-functional information stealer, [Agent Tesla] is capable of extracting credentials from different browsers, mail, and FTP clients. It logs keys and clipboards data, captures screen and video, and performs form-grabbing (Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, etc.) attacks.”

The Agent Tesla campaign that we tracked on Wednesday involved an email with the subject line: Covid19″ Latest Tips to stay Immune to Virus !!

The email came to individuals’ inboxes allegedly from the WHO, with a sender email address of “sarah@who.com.” Notice that the sender’s email address ends with “.com” when legitimate WHO email addresses instead end with “.int.”

The email alleges to include a PDF file about “various diets and tips to keep us safe from being effected with the virus.” It is signed by a “Dr. Sarah Hopkins,” a supposed media relations consultant for the WHO.

A quick online search reveals that the WHO has a public website for contacting its media relations representatives, and that none of those representatives is named Sarah Hopkins. Also, note how “Dr. Hopkins” has a phone number that doesn’t work, at +1 470 59828. Calling the number from a US-based phone resulted in an error message from the mobile service provider.

Interestingly,
the above scam is just one example of an email campaign that both impersonates
the WHO and attempts to deliver Agent Tesla.

On the same day we found the above-mentioned Agent Tesla scam, we found another that mirrored its tactics and payload.

The second
Agent Tesla scam arrives in individuals’ inbox with the email subject line “World
Health Organization/Let’s fight Corona Virus together”

Already, savvy readers should spot a flaw. The unnecessary space placed between the words “Corona” and “Virus” mirrors a similar grammatical error, an unnecessary hyphen, in the GuLoader scam we covered on Malwarebytes Labs this week.

The entire body of the email reads, in verbatim:

We realise that the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus may leave you feeling concerned, so we want to take a moment to reassure you that your safety and well-being remains our absolutely top priority.

Please be assured that our teams are working hard and we are monitoring the situation and developments closely with the health and governmental authorities of all countries we operate in. See attached WHO vital information to stay healthy.

we personally thank you for your understanding and assure you that we will do our utmost to limit disruptions this event brings to your travel plans while keeping your well-being our top priority.

This campaign attempts to trick victims into downloading a
fake informational packet on coronavirus, with the file title “COVID-19 WHO
RECOMMENDED V.gz.” Instead of trustworthy information, victims are infected
with Agent Tesla.

While this campaign does not include as many smoke-and-mirror tactics, such as a fake media representative and a fake phone number, it can still do serious damage simply by stoking the fears surrounding COVID-19.

Finally, we found a possible WHO impersonator pushing the NetWire Remote Access Trojan (RAT). RATS can allow hackers to gain unauthorized access to a machine from a remote location.

As we explain in our Threat Center profile on RATs, these types of Trojan can have devastating effects:

If Remote Access Trojan programs are found on a system, it should be assumed that any personal information (which has been accessed on the infected machine) has been compromised. Users should immediately update all usernames and passwords from a clean computer, and notify the appropriate system administrator of the potential compromise. Monitor credit reports and bank statements carefully over the following months to spot any suspicious activity on financial accounts.

The NetWire campaign included a slapdash combo of a strange
email address, an official-looking WHO logo inside the email’s body, and plenty
of typos.

Sent from “Dr. Stella Chungong” using the email address “brennan@caesars.com,”
the email subject line is “SAFETY COVID-19 (Coronavirus Virus) AWARENESS –
Safety Measures.” The body of the text reads:

To whom it may concern,

Go through the attac=ed document on safety measures regarding the spreading of Corona-virus.

Common symptoms include fever, cough, shortness in breath, and breathi=g difficulties.

Regards.

Dr. Stella Chungong

Specialist whuan=virus-advisory

The litany of misplaced “=” characters should immediately raise red flags for potential victims. These common mistakes show up in a wide variety of malicious email campaigns, as threat actors seem to operate under the mindset of “Send first, spellcheck later.”

Other malspam campaigns

Most of the coronavirus scams we spotted online are examples of malspam—malicious spam email campaigns that cross the line from phony, snake-oil salesmanship into downright nefarious malware delivery.

Here are a number of malspam campaigns that our threat
intelligence team found since March 15.

First up is this strange email titled “RE: Due to outbreak ofCoronavirus,” which arrives to users’ inboxes from the vague sender “Marketing,” with an email address of “info@bcsl.co.ke.” A Google search reveals that bcsl.co.ke appears to point to Boresha Credit Service Limited, a debt collector based in Kenya.

The short email reads:

Hello,

We have been instructed by your customer to make this transfer to you.

we are unable to process your payment as the SWIFT CODE in your bank account information is wrong,

please see that enclosed invoice and correct SWIFT CODE so we can remit payment ASAP before bank close.”

Again, scrutinizing the details of the email reveals holes
in its authenticity.

The email is signed by “Rafhana Khan,” a supposed “Admin
Executive” from the United Arab Emirates. The email sender includes this extra
bit of info that leads us nowhere: TRN No. 100269864300003.

What is a TRN, and why would it be included? At best, we can assume this is the individual’s “tax registration number,” but think about the last time anyone signed an email with the US equivalent—their tax identification number. You’ve probably never seen that before, right? That’s because tax IDs are meant to be private, and not shared in email signatures. We can assume that the threat actors included this bogus bit of info to add some imaginary credibility. Really, it’s just nonsense.

The email’s attached invoice, once again, pushes GuLoader to
the potential victim.

Another spotted malspam example pushes neither GuLoader or Agent Telsa. Instead, it tries to trick users into downloading a malware called HawkEye, a credential stealer that has plagued users since at least 2013.

According to the cybersecurity news outlet Security Affairs, HawkEye “is offered for sale on various hacking forums as a keylogger and stealer, [and] it allows to monitor systems and exfiltrate information.”

The HawkEye scam comes packaged in an email with the subject
line “CORONA VIRUS CURE FOR CHINA,ITALY” from the alleged sender “DR JINS
(CORONA VIRUS).” Again, potential victims receive a short message. The entire email
body reads:

Dear Sir/Ma,

Kindly read the attached file for your quick remedy on CORONA VIRUS.

The email sender lists their place of work as the non-existent, misspelled RESEARCH HOSPITAL ISREAL at the address NO 29 JERUSALEM STREET, P.O.C 80067, ISREAL.

On March 15, we also found an email scam targeting victims
in the UK and pushing, yet again, GuLoader. This time, threat actors promised
updated statistics on the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United
Kingdom.

The malicious email comes from the sender “PHE” with the
email address paris@mfa.go.ke, which, like one of the examples above, appears
to come from Kenya.

Because threat actors have one, overplayed tactic in these types of campaigns—putting in low effort—the content of the email is simple and short. The email reads:

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom.

Find out how many cases have been reported near you.

There is no email signature, and not even a greeting. Talk
about a lack of email etiquette.

Finally, we found another campaign on March 18 that targets
Spanish-speaking victims in Spain. The email, titled “Vacuna COVID-19:
prepare la vacuna en casa para usted y su familia para evitar COVID-19,” pushes
GuLoader.

The email is signed by “Adriana Erico,” who offers no phone
number, but does offer a fax number at 93 784 50 17. Unlike the fake phone
number we tested above, we could not test the authenticity of this fax number,
because the Bay Area is under a shelter-in-place order, and, truthfully, I
don’t own a fax machine in my home.

Protect yourself

Threat actors are always looking for the next crisis to leverage for their own attacks. For them, coronavirus presents a near-perfect storm. Legitimate confusion about accurate confirmed cases, testing availability, and best practices during social distancing makes for a fearful public, hungry for answers anywhere.

Like we said the last time we looked at COVID-19 scams, the best places for information remain the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

You can find updated statistics about confirmed COVID-19 cases from the WHO’s daily, situation reports here.

You can also find information on coronavirus myths at the WHO’s Myth Busters webpage, along with its Q&A page.  

To help prevent the spread of the illness, remember, wash
your hands for at least 20 seconds, refrain from touching your face, and practice
social distancing by maintaining a distance of six feet from people not in your
household.

This is difficult, this is new, and for many of us, it presents a life-altering shift. It’s important to consider that, right now, banding together as a global community is our best shot at beating this. That advice extends to the online world, too.

While coronavirus might have brought out the worst in cybercriminals, it’s also bringing out the best across the Internet. This week, a supposed “Covid19 Tracker App” infected countless users’ phones with ransomware, demanding victims pay $100 to unlock their devices or risk a complete deletion of their contacts, videos, and pictures. After news about the ransomware was posted on Reddit, a user decompiled the malicious app and posted the universal passcode to defeat the ransomware. The passcode was then shared on Twitter for everyone to use.

Stay safe, everyone.

The post Coronavirus scams, found and explained appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

Over the last decade, remote work and working from home has grown in popularity for many professionals. In fact, a 2018 study found more than 70 percent of global employees work remotely at least once per week. However, the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown in many parts of the world have forced a large number of employees into unfamiliar territory—not just remote work, but full-time working from home (WFH).

Given these circumstances, we figured it would be useful to share some of the security tips we have for WFH, not just for IT teams who suddenly need to secure their entire remote workforce, but for individuals to take their own precautions.

I have been working remote for over five years now, from several locations and mostly WFH, so I dare say I can speak from personal experience.

WFH physical security

The first so-obvious-it’s-not-obvious tip is to make sure your work devices are physically safe, and that you avoid offering unauthorized views of confidential information. Here are a few ways to shore up physical security while WFH:

• If you need to leave your home for supplies or other reasons, make sure your work devices are either shut down or locked—including any mobile phones you might use to check email or make work phone calls.
• If you live with a roommate or young children, be sure to lock your computer even when you step away for just a bit. Don’t tempt your roommates or family members by leaving your work open. This is true even for the workplace, so it is imperative for WFH.
• If you can’t carve out a separate work space in your home, be sure to collect your devices at the end of your workday and store them someplace out of sight. This will not only keep them from being accidentally opened or stolen, but will also help separating your work life from your home life.

System access

Perhaps your office network was so protected that little thought was given to restricting access to servers with sensitive data. Or perhaps you now have to work on your personal laptop—one that you didn’t think much about securing before coronavirus upended your life.

Either way, it’s time to start thinking about the ways to guard against unauthorized access. If you think cybercriminals (and regular criminals) will be sensitive to global events and refrain from attacking remote workers, sadly, you’d be mistaken.

• Access to the your computer’s desktop should at least be password protected, and the password should be a strong one. If the system is stolen, this will keep the thief from easily accessing company information.
• If office network permissions previously gave you unfettered access to work software, now you may be required to enter a variety of passwords to gain access. If your workplace doesn’t already offer a single sign-on service, consider using a password manager. It will be much more secure than a written list of passwords left on your desk.
• Encryption also helps protect information on stolen or compromised computers. Check whether data encryption is active on your work machine. If you’re not sure, ask your IT department whether you have it, and if they think it’s necessary.
• If you’re connecting your work computer to your home network, make sure you don’t make it visible to other computers in the network. If you have to add it to the HomeGroup, then make sure the option to share files is off.

Separate work and personal devices

Easier said that done, we know. Still, just as it’s important to carve out boundaries between work life and home life while WFH, the same is true of devices. Do you have a child being homeschooled now and turning in digital assignments? Are you ordering groceries and food online to avoid stores? Best not to cross those hairs with work.

While it may seem cumbersome to constantly switch back and forth between the two, do your best to at least keep your main work computer and your main home computer separate (if you have more than one such device). If you can do the same for your mobile devices—even better. The more programs and software you install, the more potential vulnerabilities you introduce.

• Don’t pay your home bills on the same computer you compile work spreadsheets. You can not only create confusion for yourself, but also end up compromising your personal information when a cybercriminal was looking to breach your company.
• Don’t send work-related emails from your private email address and vice versa. Not only does it look unprofessional, but you are weaving a web that might be hard to untangle once the normal office routine resumes.
• Speaking of homeschooling, it’s especially important to keep your child’s digital curriculum separate from your work device. Both are huge targets for threat actors. Imagine their delight when they find they can not only plunder an organization’s network through an unsecured remote worker, but they can also collect highly valuable PII on young students, which garners a big pay day on the dark web.

Secure connections

• Make sure you have access to your organization’s cloud infrastructure and can tunnel in through a VPN with encryption.
• Secure your home Wi-Fi with a strong password, in case VPN isn’t an option or if it fails for some reason.
• Access to the settings on your home router should be password protected as well. Be sure to change the default password it came with—no 12345, people!

Cybersecurity best practices

Other WFH security precautions may not be all that different from those you should be practicing in the office, but they are easy to forget when you are working in your own home environment. A few of the most important:

• Be wary of phishing emails. There will be many going around trying to capitalize on fear related to the coronavirus, questions about isolation and its psychological impacts, or even pretending to offer advice or health information. Scan those emails with a sharp eye and do not open attachments unless they’re from a known, trusted source.
• Related to phishing: I’m pretty sure we can expect to see a rise in Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud. Your organization may be sending you many emails and missives about new workflows, processes, or reassurances to employees. Watch out for those disguising themselves as high-ranking employees and pay close attention to the actual email address of senders.
• Beware of overexposure on social media, and try to maintain typical behavior and routine: Do you normally check social media on your phone during lunchtime? Do the same now. Once again, watch out for scams and misinformation, as criminals love using this medium to ensnare their victims.

Other security precautions

Not every organization was prepared for this scenario, so it’s only natural that some may not have the level of RemoteSec in place that others do. Make sure to get yourself up to speed with the guidelines that your organization has in place for remote work. Ask for directions if anything is unclear. Not everyone has the same level of tech savvy—the only stupid question is one that isn’t asked.

I have listed some of the questions you may need to have answered before you can rest assured that WFH is not going to be a security disaster. Here are some to consider:

• When you are working remote for long periods, make sure you know who is responsible for updates. Are you supposed to keep everything up to date or can your IT department do it for you?
• Your system may require additional security software now that it has left the safer environment of your organization’s network. Check with your IT department on whether you should install addition solutions: Will you need a security program for your Window PC or for your Mac (which was hit with twice as many threats as Windows computers in 2019)? If you’re using an Android device for work, should you download security software that can protect your phone? (iOS doesn’t allow outside antivirus vendors.)
• How will data storage and backup work? Can you save and back up your local files to a corporate cloud solution? Find out which one they prefer you to use in your specific role.

On a different note

This is a big adjustment for many people. Your first few days of WFH may leave you irritated, uncomfortable, unmotivated, or just plain exhausted. Adding security tips to the list may just add to your fatigue right now. We understand. Take it a day at a time, a step at a time.

When working from home, find a comfortable working area where you can assume a healthy posture, minimize the distraction from others, and where your presence has the least impact on how others have to behave. Take breaks to stretch your legs, and give your eyes a rest. And if you enjoy WFH, now is the time to prove to your employer that it’s a viable option in the long run.

Stay safe, everyone! Now more than ever.

The post Security tips for working from home (WFH) appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

The number of scams, threats, and malware campaigns taking advantage of public concern over the coronavirus is increasing each day. As a result, we’ve been actively monitoring emails within our spam honeypot to flag such threats and make sure our users are protected.

Yesterday, we observed a phishing campaign similar to malspam previously discovered by MalwareHunterTeam, which impersonates the World Health Organization (WHO) and promises the latest on “corona-virus.” Right off the bat, the incorrect use of a hyphen in “coronavirus” in the subject line could tip off users with a critical eye for grammar. However, since WHO are often touted as a trustworthy and authoritative resource, including by our own blog, many will be tempted to open the email.

In this particular campaign, threat actors use a fake e-book as a lure, claiming the “My Health E-book” includes complete research on the global pandemic, as well as guidance on how to protect children and businesses.

The criminals behind this scheme try to trick victims into opening the attachment, contained in a zip file, by offering teaser content within the body of the email, including:

Guidance to protect children and business centre;

This guidance provides critical considerations and practical checklists to keep Kids and business centre safe. It also advises national and local authorities on how to adapt and implement emergency plans for educational facilities.

Critical preparedness, readiness and response actions for COVID-19;

WHO has defined four transmission scenarios for COVID-19. My Health E-book describes the preparedness, readiness and response actions for each transmission scenario.

The email content goes on to tell readers that they can download and access the e-book from Windows computers only.

Instead, as soon as they execute the file inside the MyHealth-Ebook.zip archive, malware will be downloaded onto their computers. As seen in the previous wave of spam, the malicious code is for a downloader called GuLoader.

GuLoader is used to load the real payload, an information-stealing Trojan called FormBook, stored in encoded format on Google Drive. Formbook is one of the most popular info-stealers, thanks to its simplicity and its wide range of capabilities, including swiping content from the Windows clipboard, keylogging, and stealing browser data. Stolen data is sent back to a command and control server maintained by the threat actors.

While the threat actors are improving on the campaign’s sophistication by building reputable-sounding content within the body of the email, a closer examination reveals small grammatical errors, such as:

You are now receiving this email because your life count as everyone lives count.

This combined with other minor formatting and grammar mistakes, as well as a mix-and-match selection of fonts make this clever phishing scheme, upon closer examination, a dud. Still, many have fallen for far more obvious ploys.

With a huge swatch of the population now confined to their homes but working remotely, the risk of infecting a highly-distributed network is increasing. That’s why it’s more important than ever to use a discerning eye when opening work or personal emails, as employee negligence is one of the top indicators for successful cyberattack/data breach.

Malwarebytes home and business customers were already protected against this malspam campaign and its associated payloads.

Indicators of compromise

GuLoader

de1b53282ea75d2d3ec517da813e70bb56362ffb27e4862379903c38a346384d

FormBook URL

drive.google[.]com/uc?export=download&id=1vljQdfYJV76IqjLYwk74NUvaJpYBamtE

The post Cybercriminals impersonate World Health Organization to distribute fake coronavirus e-book appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.

In a world where children as young as a single day old can fall prey to fraud, it is more important than ever to educate parents and other caretakers about the dangers of child identity theft. While the hope is that perceptions can be changed and criminals brought to justice, likely the biggest concern for parents is how to reclaim their child’s identity, should they ever be in such an unfortunate position.

That is, unless the parents or guardians are the ones behind the fraud in the first place. In part 1 of our series on child identity theft, we talked about familiar fraud—fraud committed by someone who personally knows the victim—and how children are increasingly being targeted for this crime. We also touched on the repercussions of familiar fraud in the lives of kids and their families.

In part 2 of our series, we look at turning back the tables and reclaiming your child’s identity, whether it’s been stolen by a stranger or someone who knows them. In addition, we highlight the signs your child’s information might be compromised and how parents or guardians can better protect their data.

Signs of child identity compromise

When it comes to figuring out if a child’s identity has been compromised and is being used, thankfully, there are telltale signs that parents and guardians can look out for. These signs are displayed both in the real world and the digital world. They include:

• Physical mail arriving to your home that is addressed to your child. These include card applications, banking statements, and credit card or insurance applications for accounts under their name, and they’re the most obvious sign of compromise. Your child may also receive a notice from the IRS either because of unpaid income taxes or having multiple tax returns filed under their SSN.
• Phone calls received from collection agencies directed to your child.
• If the landline has a caller ID, your child’s name may appear on it. This indicates that someone has stolen and is misusing their information.
• A turned-down application for government benefit for your child. This is because someone with the same SSN as your child may already be benefiting from it.
• Bank turning down an account application for a child due to the negative credit score associated with the child’s SSN.
• Important documents of your child suddenly going missing, including their SSD card and birth certificate.
• In addition, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has listed several documents that may suddenly show up—or, in certain cases, not show up—that potentially give away active ID theft activity.

How to reclaim your child’s identity

Reclaiming a stolen identity takes a lot of work. This is true whether the victim is an adult or a child. And the length of time spent undoing the harm to your child’s reputation potentially correlates with how long the fraud has been taking place before it was identified and acted upon.

If you, dear parent or guardian, have seen any of the telltale signs of identity fraud, immediately contact the top credit bureaus to freeze your child’s credit until they are old enough to enter into a contract. Doing so means that these reports will be taken out of circulation.

A credit report for a child is normally non-existent, but if one is found, the parent or guardian should contact an organization that deals with child identity theft, such as the Identity Theft Report. If a parent would only like to take extra precaution, they can ask their credit reporting agencies (CRA), which are Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, or other smaller bureaus to create their child’s credit report and freeze it.

It is equally important for parents and/or guardians to keep the PIN that each of these credit unions have assigned to them.

Beyond freezing and receiving credit reports, other important steps for reclaiming your child’s identity include:

• Contacting any companies where fraudulent accounts in your child’s name were opened. Tell the fraud department about what happened, and ask them to close the account and send a letter confirming your child isn’t liable. If necessary, send a letter explaining your child is a minor who can’t enter into contracts and attach a copy of their birth certificate.
• For parents in the United States, contacting the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at IdentityTheft.gov or call 877-ID-THEFT to report the fraud.

How to protect your child’s identity

In the Experian survey report mentioned in part 1 of our series, more than half of victims (63 percent) wished that their parents had done more to protect them from potential fraud. Interestingly, 61 percent of parents felt the same way.

Awareness of the risks and underlying dangers of child identity theft is something parents should be actively practicing. To avoid opening an opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of your child’s information, here are some tips:

• Don’t carry your child’s SSN card. There is no need—keep it safe at home instead.
• Know when your child’s SSN is really needed when applying for something on their behalf. Schools, for example, don’t ask for a child’s SSN, so there is no need to provide it.
• When throwing out mail or documents with your personal information or your child’s, shred them before disposing.
• You may also want to consider getting your child another form of identification, such as a passport or a state identification card.
• If you receive news of your child’s school getting breached, don’t hesitate to call the school and ask for more information.
• Inquire about your child’s school directory information policy. A directory information contains a lot of personally identifiable information (PII) about a child. And sometimes, such information is shared outside of the school. Parents and/or guardians can either inform the school that they shouldn’t share their child’s information without their expressed consent, or opt out of having their information shared.
• Keep all important documents of your child in a safe and secure place.

Early detection is key. Getting acquainted with the red flags and keeping an eye out for them would nip fraud in the bud. Not only that, it’d make reclaiming and restoring a child’s identity back a little easier—emotionally, mentally, and financially.

Half of Experian respondents with children who have been victimized by fraud have learned the hard way not to share personal information with family. Some have also started actively checking credit scores and enrolling for identity theft protection services.

The things we leave behind

It’s easy for adults to forget that, like them, children have data and information that needs protecting, too. And even if their children are too young to use a computing device, they still have digital footprints. The reason? Mom and Dad or other legal guardians leave them behind. Unfortunately, it is unavoidable.

Mom needs to schedule a doctor’s appointment for the little one’s check-up, so she uses her healthcare app. Proud dad shares short clips of his bundle of joy with Aunt Martha, who lives far away and couldn’t visit the newborn in hospital. And before all of this, Mom and Dad announced the pregnancy to all their social media channels.

Sadly, the very activities that give us joy and make tasks convenient can also leave behind breadcrumbs that identity thieves can sniff out and follow. Rarely do parents or guardians stop to think about how their sharing can impact their child’s digital life.

Take, for example, baby pictures you may have shared on social media. They may contain metadata pointing to the location where they were taken. Or when you made that public announcement about your baby on the way: Did you also reveal their name? Fraudsters can easily glean from this information the baby’s full name and location. If they don’t have the child’s SSN yet, they can easily pair it with another SSN to create a synthetic identity.

This isn’t to say that parents and/or guardians should deprive relatives and friends of your little one’s adorable moments, or avoid entering any of their children’s information online. Just be mindful when doing so. Share privately by making use of your social network’s privacy settings. Also caution or remind your relatives and friends to avoid re-sharing media you post to others without your consent.

We’re all in this together

In this age of data breaches, it is easy for us to focus on the security of our own data. But let us be aware that kids and young adults are becoming more of a target, too. Children, especially, are blank slates—a highly-prized quality for someone with access to their information and with malicious intent. Hackers are after them; yet often, it’s those that are closer to them who cause the greatest harm—sometimes without knowing they are doing it. Worse, more than one person could be fraudulently using an innocent child’s identity.

While parents and guardians are advised to be equally vigilant in protecting the data of their children—biological and adopted ones—as much as their own or anyone else’s, we encourage any other responsible adult in the family to take part. If familiar fraud becomes a family problem, it should be a family affair to thwart it off at all costs for the future of the most vulnerable in the household.

The post Child identity theft, part 2: How to reclaim your child’s identity appeared first on Malwarebytes Labs.