Such a technique may have been leveraged in the cyber-attack against major U.S. local newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises last month.
The FBI’s Denver office has warned about the increasing prevalence of scams that use fake online file converter sites to facilitate the spread of malware.
According to CBS News, aside from obtaining access to victims' computers, bogus file converters also enable the theft of credentials, financial account details, and other personal data.
Such a technique may have been leveraged in the cyber-attack against major U.S. local newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises last month, which was later claimed by the Qilin ransomware operation.
"The best way to thwart these fraudsters is to educate people so they don't fall victim to these fraudsters in the first place," said FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek, who urged victims of such a scheme to immediately report to the agency.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
