Top 5 Most Terrible Social Media Cyber Attacks
Social media sites have gained a massive popularity across the globe. It is estimated that there are more than 300 million active users in the world today. To cybercriminals, this is a goldmine that they use to achieve their heinous activities such as steal confidential information from unsuspecting social media users.
Here are the top 5 most terrible social media cyber-attacks as documented by Info Security.
Employees Received Malware from Pseudo Social Media Accounts
In July 2017, a group of hackers created fake pseudo account of a renowned photographer from London, Mia Ash, and used it to send malware, PupyRat, to unsuspecting employees of various corporations. This Remote Access Trojan was used to gain access to the victim’s devices.
US Government Employees Hit by Malware-Laced Posts
In early 2017, Russian cybercriminals are suspected to have sent more than 10,000 phishing messages to US government employees through social media. All the posts were laced with malware that allowed the cybercriminals to remotely access the devices used to view the posts. This attack was considered the most well organized and executed cyber-attack ever experienced at nation-state level in the US.
High-Profile Accounts are compromised by a 3rd Party App
It is not rare for social media accounts of high profile people in the society to be targeted by cybercriminals whose main agenda is to use malware to get the user’s personal information such as credit card numbers and bank accounts. In March 2017, a third-party mobile application dubbed TwitterCounter was used by cybercriminals from Turkey to gain access and control social media accounts of high profile personalities and brands such as Forbes and Starbucks. They used the accounts to spread aggressive messages that aimed at inciting people against Netherlands.
Financial Crimes Executed Using Social Media Sites
In August 2016, a team of researchers at ZeroFox unearthed a network of underground financial crime cartels that use social media sites to embezzle funds from people who are known to be clients or renowned banks. They do this by offering appealing financial services such as money flipping and credit card cracking. The phishing posts are usually posted on leading social media sites and results in los of thousands if not millions of dollars per year.
Smart Hackers Managed to Successfully Hack LinkedIn
Who would have thought that LinkedIn, one of the renowned professional social networking site, firewalls can be compromised. In May 2016, hackers managed to get access to 117 million emails of LinkedIn users and their respective passwords. The emails and passwords were later sold through the dark web.
These are the top five cyber-attacks that were successfully executed through social media sites. It is imperative that you be careful about the links that you click on as well as the people that you follow or add as friends to avoid becoming a victim of any of these tactics.
