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:
- U.S. Accuses North Korean Hackers of Stealing Millions
February 17, 2021
The U.S. Department of Justice has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for their alleged participation in widespread, destructive cyberattacks as part of the advanced persistent threat (APT) known as Lazarus Group. The indictment broadens the scope of crimes that the DoJ has linked to Lazarus Group (and by extension, to North Korea). The feds also ...
- Kia Motors America suffers ransomware attack, $20 million ransom
February 17, 2021
Kia Motors America has suffered a ransomware attack by the DoppelPaymer gang, demanding $20 million for a decryptor and not to leak stolen data. Kia Motors America (KMA) is headquartered in Irvine, California, and is a Kia Motors Corporation subsidiary. KMA has nearly 800 dealers in the USA with cars and SUVs manufactured out of West ...
- Details Tied to Safari Browser-based ‘ScamClub’ Campaign Revealed
February 17, 2021
Details of a flaw in Apple’s Safari browser, publicly disclosed Tuesday, outline how the cybergang known as ScamClub reached 50 million users with a three-month-long malicious ad campaign pushing malware to mobile iOS Chrome and macOS desktop browsers. The Safari bug, patched on Dec. 2 by Apple, was exploited by a malvertising campaign that redirected traffic ...
- DDoS attacks in Q4 2020
February 16, 2021
Cybercriminals are constantly on the lookout for means and methods to make attacks more destructive. In Q4 2020, Citrix ADC (application delivery controller) devices became one such tool, when perpetrators abused their DTLS interface. The DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) protocol is used to establish secure connections over UDP, through which most DNS queries, as ...
- DDoS attacks on Russian online retailers double in 2020
February 16, 2021
The number of DDoS attacks on Russian online retailers nearly doubled in 2020 compared to the previous year, the Rostelecom-Solar cyber security company said in a statement. “Online retail business has been in the focus of cyber criminals for several years. However, as customer demand for online retail services grew amid coronavirus restrictions, they became even ...
- DDoS attack takes down EXMO cryptocurrency exchange servers
February 15, 2021
The servers of British cryptocurrency exchange EXMO were taken offline temporarily after being targeted in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. “We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack on our platform,” the exchange said in a notification published earlier today. “Please note that the EXMO exchange website is now under the DDoS attack. The servers are temporarily unavailable.” In ...