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Africa|Botswana|Defence|Engineering|SECURITY|Systems|Testing|Training
africa|botswana|defence|engineering|security|systems|testing|training

Omicron-themed phishing attacks add insult to injury

27th January 2022

     

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This article has been supplied as a media statement and is not written by Creamer Media. It may be available only for a limited time on this website.

By Anna Collard, SVP of Content Strategy & Evangelist for KnowBe4 Africa

Social engineering such as phishing is one of the most popular ways for cybercriminals to access systems to steal data, credentials and money. In South Africa, the 2021 KnowBe4/ITWeb Ransomware Survey found that 32% of respondents had fallen victim to ransomware, with social engineering being the top root cause of ransomware gaining a foothold in these environments. Twenty-seven percent of respondents who fell victim to ransomware pointed to social engineering as the method used by attackers to access their systems.  

Attackers commonly use topical issues such as major news or trending themes to lure their victims.

Recently, we learned of a phishing campaign that not only scares people with a claim that they have been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but also taunts them when they click on the link they were sent.

According to Lawrence Abrams at BleepingComputer, a mean-spirited phishing campaign is now mocking victims after infecting their devices with Dridex malware.

Abrams wrote: “Over the past few weeks, one of the Dridex phishing email distributors is having fun toying with victims and researchers. This was first seen when the threat actor began trolling security researchers by using their names combined with racist comments as malware file names and email addresses. [Next], the threat actor spammed fake employee termination letters that displayed an alert stating, ‘Merry X-Mas Dear Employees!’ after infecting their device. In a new phishing campaign discovered by MalwareHunterTeam and 604Kuzushi, this same threat actor took it to the next level by spamming emails with a subject of ‘COVID-19 testing result’ that states the recipient was exposed to a coworker who tested positive to the Omicron COVID-19 variant.”

The Omicron-themed phishing emails state: “This letter is to inform you that you have been exposed to a coworker who tested positive for OMICRON variant of COVID-19. Please take a look at the details in the attached document.”

If the victim opens the Excel document and enables macros, their device will be infected with the Dridex banking Trojan. The document will then display a pop-up showing the COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Helpline number.

He noted that as Dridex phishing campaigns are currently using password-protected attachments, enterprises need to train their employees to spot and avoid these types of attacks.

User awareness and training remains the first line of defence against phishing attacks. This is particularly important across Africa, where as recently as December 2021, our research*revealed that over 45% of people across Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Mauritius and South Africa said they would open an attachment they did not expect, and 54% said they trusted emails from people they knew – this was despite the fact that cybercriminals can hack or spoof (impersonate) their friends’, colleagues’ or suppliers’ systems.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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