DIGITAL LIFE

Beware: criminals are using online meeting apps to infect victims

Video calls became very popular after the adoption of social isolation, as they allow people to be close to family, friends and colleagues. Knowing that cybercriminals do not hesitate to use any opportunity to spread malware, Kaspersky experts have investigated the current threat landscape using these online meeting apps as bait.
Kaspersky's analysis found that Skype is the brand most used by cybercriminals in their scams, with a total of 120,000 suspicious files disguised as the traditional video call application. Then, the survey identified more than 1,300 malicious files, which disguised themselves as Zoom (42%), WebEx (22%), GoToMeeting (13%), Flock (11%) and Slack (11%).
Among the suspicious files, simple imitations of the real programs were found and, among the truly malicious software, were some malware. In this context, two adware families stand out - a program that displays advertisements in an abusive way -: DealPly and DownloadSponsor.
Generally, adware infects a device when the user downloads an app outside the official store. Although this program does not generate financial losses, it still represents a privacy risk.
In addition, Kaspersky experts found malware masquerading as .lnk files (shortcuts on the desktop to quickly access frequently used programs). The vast majority of detections were Exploit.Win32.CVE-2010-2568, an old but popular malicious software that allows the cybercriminal to infect the device with other malicious files.
“We have not seen a dramatic increase in the number of attacks or files disguised as popular video call applications. This is moderated. At the same time, we consider it important to inform people about the existence of such threats. In the current scenario, when most are working from home, it is extremely important to ensure that what we use as a tool for online meetings is downloaded from a legitimate source, configured correctly and without serious vulnerabilities, ”says Denis Parinov, Kaspersky security expert.

Source: 33giga