INTERNATIONAL. Recent online scams have hit the travel industry hardest, with the sector accounting for more than half of observed attacks over the last month, according to a new report. Research by cloud security provider Menlo Security has found a series of so-called phishing attacks over the past month aimed at stealing credentials for airline duty free accounts.
Phishing relies on exploiting popular brands and products. Most of the recent credential phishing attacks seen by Menlo involved fake Outlook and Office 365 login pages.
The attackers create bogus login pages or forms to steal credentials from corporate employees who use certain apps or services such as Office 365, Amazon Prime and Adobe.
Menlo said it also found credential phishing attacks spoofing cryptocurrency wallets and popular software services from countries such as South Korea.
Microsoft Office emerged as a favourite target due to its popularity with organisations. According to Menlo, cybercriminals are increasingly hosting their malicious landing pages on legitimate and popular cloud services such as Microsoft Azure, OneDrive, Box, Firebase and Dropbox, constantly seeking ways to bypass existing security methods.
“Cybercriminals are trying to add complexity to carry out phishing campaigns to steal sensitive information,” the report says. “Increasing cybersecurity awareness through training and education initiatives is often helpful in reducing the impact of credential phishing attacks, but corporate users should be cautious when a site presents a form that asks for personal/sensitive information.”
To help guard against phishing attacks, Menlo advises organisations to be careful when typing sensitive information into a webpage and ensure it is a trusted site. They should follow standard security practices and have a password rotation policy. There should be a response playbook in the event of credential theft and users should be educated about phishing campaigns, the company advised.
