Dropbox Name Used to Drop Malware

Phishing and ransomware incidents are on the rise and a recent victim being used in these attacks is a popular cloud storage company that many people use to store and share documents on a daily basis. While it has not been compromised, Dropbox is being impersonated in a malware-based phishing campaign that is likely to be effective due to the massive number of people that use it.

The email received by potential victims includes a note that an invoice for language translation services is included. If the included link is clicked, a .zip archive file is immediately downloaded that includes the malware.

The company warning of this, AppRiver, noted that other obvious clues that the email is phishing include a spoofed sender’s address and the language used. So always take extra care when receiving emails that include unexpected links or attachments. If you are not 100% sure they are safe, don’t click them. If you notice typos or incorrect use of the language, there is a good chance it’s phishing, so pay close attention.

Some reports have found that phishing campaigns such as this one have increased several hundred percent this year and many times they deliver ransomware. CISOs and IT professionals have said that phishing and ransomware have hit 73% of their companies and are the top two security concerns to which businesses of all sizes should pay attention in the future. Daily ransomware attacks have increased 300% since 2015, so also be sure to do regular backups of important files as well. Then, if ransomware hits, it’s relatively simple and much less expensive to restore from a backup than deal with the hackers holding those files for ransom.

C-level and IT executives are hot targets for phishing and ransomware too. In a report shared by Osterman Research and DomainTools, 51% of them have experienced between one and five attacks in the past year and nearly 25% have experienced six or more.