Roblox accounts being hacked in support of Trump reelection
A hacking campaign is targeting Roblox accounts to support President Trump in the upcoming U.S. Presidential elections in November. Roblox is an online gaming platform that allows members to create games and publish them for others to play. With over 100 million monthly active users and consistently in the top hundred sites globally, Roblox is an immensely popular gaming platform. While used by people of all ages, Roblox appeals more to younger children ranging in ages between 9 and 14 years old. Targeted at children, once the hacker gains access to the account, they modify the About section of the profile to read, “Ask your parents to vote for Trump this year! #MAGA2020.”
Former NSA Chief Michael Rogers Talks Cybersecurity, Relationship Between People and Tech
As part of the Upfront Summit, former National Security Agency director and head of the Cyber Command, Michael Rogers, recently shared his thoughts on the state of cyberwarfare, the nation’s approach to cybersecurity and the relationship between people and technology. When asked about the current state of nation activity in cyberspace, Rogers spoke of the various ways nations use digital attacks as an offensive tool. He said he has never seen any nation besides North Korea use cyberattacks to go after money. Iran uses cyberattacks as a low-risk way to change behavior of their adversaries. Russia, on the other hand, uses cyberattacks as a means to control the dynamic between cyber and information, while China uses this method for technological developments toward an economic advantage.
Fake “DNS Update” emails targeting site owners and admins
Attackers are trying to trick web administrators into sharing their admin account login credentials by urging them to activate DNSSEC for their domain. The scam was spotted by Sophos researchers, when the admin(s) of their own security marketing blog received an email impersonating WordPress and urging them to click on a link to perform the activation (see screenshot above). The link took them to a “surprisingly believable” phishing page with logos and icons that matched their service provider (WordPress VIP), and instructed them to enter their WordPress account username and password to start the update. “The scam then shows you some fake but believable progress messages to make you think that a genuine ‘site upgrade’ has kicked off, including pretending to perform some sort of digital ‘file signing’ at the end,” Sophos’s security proselytiser Paul Ducklin explained.
Advertisers are running from Facebook. What’s next?
The advertiser boycott is quickly spiraling into an even bigger headache for Facebook. The boycott, organized by civil rights groups, has more than 300 participants, and isn’t slowing down. The group has called for an international expansion, and brands like Starbucks, Clorox and Pfizer have joined the call to temporarily pull ads from Facebook. While not every company yanking ads has signed on to the official #StopHateForProfit boycott, the campaign appears to have prompted marketing behemoths like Coca-Cola and Target to “reassess” their ad budgets. There are likely many more still to come: One-third of the world’s largest advertisers are participating or say they are “likely” to participate, according to a survey from the World federation of Advertisers reported by the Financial Times.
FBI Warns Consumers about COVID-19 Antibody Testing Scams
Lockdown measures may be easing across the world, but we are not out of the woods yet. Scammers continue to leverage the coronavirus crisis by recycling old ruses or devising new schemes to fool unsuspecting victims. Governments and police are on full alert as coronavirus-related scams plague the digital landscape, defrauding the population of millions. Last week, the FBI issued a warning about a new breed of scam related to antibody testing for the virus. According to the agency, fraudsters have started marketing unapproved antibody tests that provide more than just false results to potential customers. Individuals caught in this ruse expose personal information, as bad actors will try to steal sensitive data such as names, date of birth, Social Security Numbers, and other personal health data that could lead to a bad case of identity theft and fraud.
