Recently, our team exposed sophisticated scam kits designed to steal sensitive data and trick consumers. But underground marketplaces are not just for malware and stolen passwords. They also offer services designed to manipulate your opinion of the products and services you buy every day.
In our latest research, we examined cybercrime forums where sellers advertise illicit “reputation management” services. For the right price, these underground operators offer to flood a product with glowing, five-star ratings or remove negative reviews. This shadowy industry works both ways—artificially boosting reputations and deliberately hiding legitimate complaints.
A major shift we are seeing in this space is the adoption of new technology. We also found that cybercriminals are using AI to automate these fake review campaigns. This could allow them to quickly generate realistic, human-sounding feedback in large volumes without much manual effort.
Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes Labs
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Okta cybersecurity breach wipes out more than $2 billion in market cap
October 23, 2023
Okta has shed more than $2 billion from its market valuation since the company disclosed a hack of its support systems Friday. The high-profile incident is the latest in a string of incidents that have been tied to Okta or its products, including a spate of intrusions at casinos that crippled Las Vegas hotel rooms ...
- From Copacabana to Barcelona: The Cross-Continental Threat of Brazilian Banking Malware
October 23, 2023
Proofpoint researchers have long tracked clusters of malicious activity using banking malware to target users and organizations in Brazil and surrounding countries. Recently, researchers observed multiple threat clusters targeting Spain from threat actors and malware that have traditionally targeted Portuguese and Spanish speakers in Brazil, Mexico, and other parts of the Americas. While the targeting ...
- Booking.com customers targeted by scam ‘confirmation’ emails
October 23, 2023
Travellers using the popular hotel website Booking.com are being warned not to fall for scam emails asking them to confirm their hotel payment, after a hack of Booking.com’s email system. In recent weeks the Observer has been contacted by a number of customers claiming that they had received scam emails from within the Booking.com system. ...
- Philippines’ cybersecurity failures exposed as hackers leak state secrets, people’s data
October 22, 2023
All it apparently took for one Philippine hacker to break into a government website was “Admin123” – a password that reflects what experts say is the authorities’ lax attitude towards cybersecurity that not only leaves millions of Filipinos vulnerable to identity theft but has exposed some of the country’s top military secrets. On October 3, ...
- Phony Corsair LinkedIn Listing Contains DarkGate Malware
October 21, 2023
You can never be too careful when surfing the web, even if you’re looking for a new job. Corsair is a prominent name in the gaming hardware and accessories market, and it stands to reason that it would be a hot destination for enthusiasts in the market for a new job. However, some nefarious parties are ...
- Europol: Ragnar Locker ransomware gang taken down by international police swoop
October 20, 2023
This week, law enforcement and judicial authorities from eleven countries delivered a major blow to one of the most dangerous ransomware operations of recent years. This action, coordinated at international level by Europol and Eurojust, targeted the Ragnar Locker ransomware group. The group were responsible for numerous high-profile attacks against critical infrastructure across the world. In ...