K7 Antivirus

  Phishing , Haven’t we heard about this over and over again. What is the first thing that comes to your mind? Spam emails , Am I right? I know people have spoken about this topic over and over again. So what’s new in this blog. Well, this is more of an awareness blog for users to know the current trend in phishing attacks. So, without further ado, let’s go straight to the topic. Phishing is a type of social engineering attack and an age-old technique whereby threat actors send spam emails to lure probable victims into revealing sensitive information or to install malicious software into their system. Figure 1, shows how threat actors can lure innocent users. Figure 1: Depicting a Phishing Scenario Earlier threat actors only used emails for their attacks. Nowadays, SMS text messages, aka Smishing or telephonic attacks, aka Vishing, have gained popularity. However, the primary threat is still spam emails. Why is phishing still widespread? Humans are both the easiest and al...

  Ransomware has always been in the headlines for its disruptive nature and these days there has been a spurt in these attacks with the rise in the “triple extortion” technique, whereby threat actors, not only steal sensitive data from the organisation, and threaten them that their data would be released in the darknet, but also target their customers and business partners. Also, even if the ransom is paid, there is still a risk for organisations as their data can be put for sale in the darknet. This blog is also for awareness about phishing and a continuation of the previous blog . This is about how phishing can be used as an attack vector or should it be called the predecessor to spread dangerous malware and ransomware. Phishing has become the most used attack vector to spread ransomware these days. Threat actors use links or attachments to befool users into doing the expected action. These phishing emails usually come from known contacts or the employee’s superiors, thereby fo...

 Cybercriminals are constantly finding innovative ways to target online users. One of them is posing as a legitimate AntiVirus. Fake AntiVirus is a type of scareware disguised as a reputed AntiVirus. These usually live on users’ insecurity and are mainly targeted towards the less tech-savvy crowd as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Not so tech-savvy users These scourge users when they browse websites. You might have experienced this sometimes. For example, while browsing you might have got pop-ups saying your system is infected with malware and you would need to download the AntiVirus given in the same to protect your system from malware. However, if you proceed to do that, you are inviting TROUBLE . You would be basically installing possibly dangerous malware onto your device, which could be stealing your sensitive credentials, encrypting your files, exposing your confidential data for sale in the darknet, etc. as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: Sensitive data being stolen from users...

  Is there something called Ethical Hacking or is it just one of the cyber jargon being used across the world? Before we get into the details, let us get accustomed to 2 jargon viz. White Hats and Black Hats. In simple terms, White Hats hack with the owner’s consent, Black Hats do it without the owner’s consent. The intention is different in both cases. In ethical hacking or white-hat hacking, a consensus is made between the hacker and the organization which cites what kind of testing would be done to find out the vulnerabilities, what is considered a breach of trust and so on. If there is any breach, the hacker(s) will be brought to book. Figure 1 depicts ethical hacking. Figure 1: Ethical hacking In hacking or illegal hacking , the black hats find out the loopholes within the organization and exploit them causing huge monetary loss and also bad reputation among its customers and businesses. Figure 2 depicts illegal hacking Figure 2: Illegal hacking Let us now understand what ...

  Screen sharing apps allow one to share your desktop or mobile screen remotely with others in an online meeting. Unfortunately, this can be abused by fraudsters, as once the screen is shared, others can view everything you do on your screen, such as the passwords entered, OTPs accessed, etc. Frauds using screen-sharing apps are common because the fraudsters buy the victims’ trust and dupe them of their money. These frauds have increased ever since remote working started as organizations allowed employees to use these apps to share their screens in online meetings for their regular project updates. Let us now see a scenario wherein Ram, the innocent victim, is duped by Shyam, an unscrupulous perpetrator using a screen-sharing app. Here is how the conversation goes. Shyam: Good Morning, Sir! I am calling from the XYZ Lottery Agency. Your lottery number has won a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh Ram (Not very convinced): Umm! How do I believe you? Shyam: Sir, I am an employee of the Age...