Spammers misused WannaCry fear to market fraudulent data-protection services

As the fear of the WannaCry ransomware epidemic set in, cyber criminals sent out spam and phishing emails offering users different services to fight against the epidemics, noted Kaspersky Lab's "Spam and phishing in Q2 2017" report.

The WannaCry ransomware attack affected more than 200,000 computers across the globe, resulting in massive panic, and spammers instantly capitalised on the opportunity. Researchers detected a large amount of messages offering services such as protection from WannaCry attacks, data recovery, and, moreover, educational workshops and courses for users.

In addition, spammers successfully implemented a traditional scheme of fraudulent offers to install software updates on affected computers. However, links were redirecting users to phishing pages, where the personal data of victims would have been stolen.

One of the main trends in the past three months is the number of mass mailings targeted at corporate networks. Based on Kaspersky Lab research, these have expanded since the beginning of the year. Spammers began to widely disguise malicious mailings as corporate dialogues, by using the identities of corporate mail services, including real signatures, logos and even banking information.

In archives attached to the email, cybercriminals sent out exploit packages targeted at stealing FTP, email and other passwords. Kaspersky Lab experts highlight that most attacks on the corporate sector have financial goals.

Further, in the second quarter of the year researchers detected a growth in number of mass mailings with malicious Trojans, sent on behalf of international delivery services. Spammers were sending shipping reports with information about non-existent parcel deliveries.

With the aim to infect computers or to steal personal credentials, criminals were found spreading download links with malware, including the banking Trojan Emotet, which was first detected back in 2014. Overall, the volume of malicious mass mailings has increased by 17 percent, according to the new Kaspersky Lab report.

"During the second quarter of the year, we have seen that the main trends in spam and phishing attacks have continued to grow. The use of WannaCry in mass mailings proves that cybercriminals are very attentive and reactive to international events. Moreover, cybercriminals have started to focus more on the B2B sector, seeing it as lucrative. We expect this tendency will continue to grow, and the overall amount of corporate attacks and their variety will expand", said Darya Gudkova, Spam Analyst Expert at Kaspersky Lab.

"Today, effectiveness depends on the flexibility and reliability of the self-learning systems created by experts. And success goes to those able to provide a combination of the mathematical abilities of man, and complex infrastructure that permits developing new algorithms; And we call that combination Humachine Intelligence - a fusion of three fundamental things: big data, machine learning, and our analysts' expertise," added Altaf Halde, Managing Director- South Asia, Kaspersky Lab.