Cybercrime is rife at the moment, and we seem to be constantly talking about it! Unfortunately, there is yet another new trick that we think you should be aware of. Cyber criminals are constantly coming up with new ways to access and infiltrate your devices and data. Luckily, as soon as a new cyber scam is noticed, defence weapons get stronger to deal with these new attacks. A good example of this is your email being able to filter out malicious and junk emails so that you don’t have to even think about it!  

Does your website have a contact form? Most do nowadays and if yours does then it is facing a new threat. Cybercriminals are using web forms to spread malware and even hold data ransom. In this scam, cybercriminals pretend to be a potential customer or interested party and ask you to provide them with a quote. You, in turn, will email them with a reply to their question or request. This will then start an email chain; at some point they will send you an ISO file. They will say that it is relevant to your conversation, but they won’t attach it via email, and it will be sent via a file-sharing service such as WeTransfer or Dropbox. This will be used to try and avoid the protection that an email provider gives by default.

If you think about it, this is very clever. Imagine you are talking to a prospective customer; you probably aren’t thinking that they are a cybercriminal and are much more likely to open files without thinking. This file will give the hacker remote access to your device and allow them full access to your network. They can then launch a malware or ransomware attack.

It is said that this form of contact form attack was first tried in December 2021 and since then it has become even more popular.  Make sure that any requests you get through a contact form are genuine and do not open any files unless you are 100% sure they are genuine and come from a trustworthy source.

If you would like any more information about cyber-attacks or security, then please get in contact! We are happy to help!

Published with permission from Your Tech Updates.