Spyware attacks in a big way
The target is Czech computers with Windows
Spyware Agent Tesla remains the biggest threat to users of the Windows operating system in the Czech Republic, with almost a third of all detected detections. This follows from ESET’s regular cyber threat statistics for July this year.
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Czechs are terrorized by spyware
Security specialists warn against manipulative email communication. The latest data from the regular statistics of cyber threats for users of the Windows operating system in the Czech Republic confirmed a significant increase in detections of the long-monitored Spyware Agent Tesla, which appeared in almost a third of all cases in July.
“In July, we saw a higher proportion of detections for the Agent Tesla spyware. Considering the statistics from the previous months, this was a significant increase in its occurrence in the Czech environment,” says Martin Jirkal from ESET.
In the case of the other most frequently detected malicious codes, experts discovered attempts at Czech translations of the names of e-mail attachments. The most frequently detected dangerous attachments were “Copia di pagamento.exe” and “RE Urgent_o 4501226854., pdf.exe” in the case of the Formbook spyware, “6480754836_AWB_20230727_411.vbs” and “New order product.vbe” in the case of the Agent.QMG malware.
“On the one hand, attackers have artificial intelligence tools at hand, which can help them a lot with better translations. On the other hand, we still come across translations that are noticeably machine-made and can alert users at first glance that something is wrong,” adds Jirkal.
“We can also continue to see a proven strategy that attackers use in communicating with their potential victims – by sending an email message with an attachment, they want to create a sense of urgency in users, and they also still bet on sending the documents to look like some kind of payment documents. These are typical cases of manipulative communication, the aim of which is to confuse the user and force him to launch the attachment in a moment of inattention or in a hurry,” writes ESET.
Attackers use infostealers, which also include spyware, to steal credentials that they can then resell or re-use, for example in an attempt to break into user accounts with automated brute-force attacks. Security experts warn that users who repeatedly use the same passwords for multiple accounts are at risk.
How to defend yourself?
Experts recommend that users ideally use passphrases for their accounts, that is, a password in the form of a sentence that they will remember well, and at the same time, this password should be sufficiently long and complex. To store their login information, they should then consider purchasing a password manager, a specialized program that stores passwords in encrypted form and automatically fills them in at login.
Preview photo source: Elisa Ventur / Unsplash, source: ESET
2023-08-19 09:36:59
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