This LinkedIn phishing scam abuses Google Forms to siphon your personal details
Scam can reportedly bypass any binary email security checks
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Cybersecurityresearchers have unearthed a credential stealing phishing scam that’s aimed at users of the professional networking platform,LinkedIn.
The research by email security vendor Armorblox follows news of the sale of millions ofscrapped LinkedIn user detailson the dark web - and Preet Kumar, ArmorBlox Director of Customer Success, argues that the scraped details could be utilized to obtain login credentials from LinkedIn users.
Moreover, in what has now become acommon modus operandiin phishing attacks, the whole fraudulent campaign is run via the reputableGoogleservices,Google Formsin this case, which helps the attackers thwart most automated checks.
We’re looking at how our readers use VPNs with streaming sites like Netflix so we can improve our content and offer better advice. This survey won’t take more than 60 seconds of your time, and you can also choose to enter the prize draw to win a $100 Amazon voucher or one of five 1-year ExpressVPN subscriptions.
Click here to start the survey in a new window«
Legitimate scam
The phishing attack originates from a legitimate Nigerian university email account, which Kumar believes has been compromised and exploited.
Because the domain from which the email originates is legitimate, the email bypassed authentication checks and protection mechanisms like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance).
The fraudulent email informs users that their LinkedIn account has been locked, tricking them into opening the phishing LinkedIN login page hosted on Google Forms.
“This page was hosted on Google Forms and used LinkedIn branding to get past victims’ perfunctory eye tests. Because Google Forms is ‘trusted by default’, this page bypassed any binary email security technologies that filter for known bad or suspicious links,”writes Kumarin her breakdown.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
Cisco issues patch to fix serious flaw allowing possible industrial systems takeover
Washington state court systems taken offline following cyberattack
I’ve used Genmoji and now I’m convinced Apple Intelligence will be a huge success
