Symantec: Hackers learned to pretend to be printers

New ways of deception that encourage users to open malicious applications and email are identified by researchers of the Symantec antivirus company.

Hackers send meals who allegedly came from office printers, many of whom are now able to send scanned documents by e -mail, reports Haker.ru .

“This is a new tactic that we have not encountered before,” says Paul Wood, senior analyst at Symantec.cloud intelligence department.

Streams of letters with malicious investments have increased sharply from late August. The intensification of spam flows with investments also led to an increase in the average size of uninvited messages.

All such mails invariably contain one of the types of booters that are used to download other malicious programs or theft of documents from the computer.

Symantec published examples of such recently received letters in the last report issued on Tuesday. At first glance, messages with the topic "FWD: Scanned HP Officejet" look very convincing. Next, we read - "The attached document was scanned and sent to you using Hewlett -Packard HP Officejet 05701J and then -" Sender Morton ".

Wood said that this unites all the attackers: they invent the name of the sender and give the impression that the letter came from the same domain to which the recipient belongs. Some of the messages intercepted by Symantec at first glance seem to the company's internal e -mail. This significantly increases the likelihood that a person who received a letter will open an investment.

The attachment is a .ZIP file, which is already strange. Wood said: "It is unlikely that most printers with the ability to send e -mail can really send a file. Zip; usually such printers send graphic files."

"Although Windows is able to open .zip files, it is obvious that scammers are trying to hide this extension from those who use alternative tools to uninstall the contents. In some archiving tools, a malicious application appears with the expansion of .doc or .jpg. Hackers manipulate file names to cause less suspicion," explained Wood.

Thus, according to analysts, we can talk about the discovery of new methods of social engineering, focused on the introduction of users into misconception or their open blackmail in order to steal money from bank accounts or their personal data.

In the Symantec September report, more active use of relatively new technologies such as HTML 5, to create fake sites and mobile software. Fraudsters also began to actively use script languages ​​such as JavaScript, to develop malicious software and various fraudulent tricks.