You’ve been invited to party ... with scammers!

Feb 6
2 min read

Happy Friday

It's Friday and who doesn't like a fun weekend party invite? But don't party with scammers! As you might have guessed, the bad guys are blasting fake party invites into people's inboxes. Here's how it goes:

1. You'll get an email that looks like a party invitation, likely from someone you know who's mailbox has been broken into. The message looks informal, social and not suspicious at all.

2. If you click the link inside the email, you'll be sent to a webpage that tricks you into "downloading" an invitation. Here's a screenshot of what that scam page looks like:

3. If you click that link, it's bad news for you. It initiates a background download of Connectwise ScreenConnect, software that gives the attacker the same deep level access as a remote IT technician.

They can now see your screen in real time, control your mouse and keyboard, download and upload files and run programs in the shadows to do even more bad stuff. Worse yet, rebooting the computer won't help. The moment it reconnects to the internet, they regain access to it.

The Takeaway

This is a perfect example of a social engineering campaign that takes advantage of an ordinarily safe and seemingly low-risk activity to knock you off balance.

Invitations that ask you to download or open software are a huge red flag. If you get one in your inbox, reach out to the sender by phone or text (not by email... because their mailbox may be hacked) to see if it's a real party invite.

If it is, good for you, you're popular. If not, then you just stopped a hacker from fooling you.

Stay safe out there.

-Attila

New Friday Funnies!

How do farmers party?

They turnip the beets.

What did one hat say to another?

You wait here I’ll go on ahead.

Why did the man bring a ladder to the bar?

He heard the drinks were on the house.

What did the house wear to the party?

Address.