Happy Friday
During last week's call with Homeland Security, they brought up a new type of attack targeting everyday computer users in the form of Google ads.
Search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning is considered a type of malvertising (malicious advertising). It's a technique used by threat actors to trick visitors into entering personal data onto their malicious websites by making them appear authentic.
In this new wave of attacks (source: MalwareBytes) the ads look 100% legitimate and are targeting those who want to track their USPS packages.
Here's a screenshot:
The Takeaway
Many of the new sites we're seeing are exact replicas of the legitimate banking, shopping or shipping sites. At first glance there's no real way to tell them apart.
What will save you is looking at the url. Suspicious urls often contain hyphens and symbols while legitimate websites usually do not. Scammers often use them with known brands to try to trick you. For example, www.google.com isn't the same as www.google-search.com.
If you're not sure, the following services will check your link for free:
The bad guys are getting smarter every day. Let's do our best to keep up with them!
Stay safe out there.
-Attila
New Friday Funnies! ChatGPT's joke for today on the topic of scammers: Knock, knock.
Who's there? Lettuce.
Lettuce who? Lettuce in and we'll give you a deal of a lifetime! One slightly used Eiffel Tower, going cheap!
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