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The COVID-19 pandemic forced the majority of people to move their work to their homes, which meant an unprecedented increase in online meeting application usage.
Criminals did not overlook this fact and started to distribute malware using popular meeting applications as a lure.
Atlas VPN analysis reveals that cyberthreats disguised as videoconferencing applications jumped by 1,067% in a year.
Threat actors spread these malicious files through phishing emails or websites. Fraudsters create seemingly authentic emails and websites to lure victims into downloading the installer, which comes with a hidden bonus called malware.
Edward Garb, a cybersecurity researcher and writer at Atlas VPN, shares his advice on how to protect yourself against malware:
“There are countless little tricks that fraudsters can use to dupe you into clicking on a phishing link or downloading an attachment. As a rule of thumb, simply decide to ignore all email attachments and links until you confirm with your colleagues, friends, or Google search that a particular company is indeed sending out such emails.
If you need to download a particular software, go to their website directly, do not click on an email link, or use downloaders from third-party websites.”
In March 2020, researchers detected 90,000 malicious installers hidden under the name of popular meeting applications, while in February 2020, the number jumped to a staggering 1.05 million, representing a nearly 12x increase.
Most threats were detected in January 2021, when victims encountered 1.15 million cyber threats.
Throughout last year, hackers attacked victims with this type of malware around 411,000 times per month. The volume of attacks increased steadily during 2020, with a noticeable spike in November and December.
To read the full article, head over to:
https://atlasvpn.com/blog/malware-disguised-as-meeting-apps-spiked-by-1-067-in-12-months
