One of the largest phishing-as-a-service platforms, LabHost, was severely disrupted by law enforcement in 19 countries during a year-long operation that resulted in 37 arrests.
According to a recent Europol announcement, the folks behind the LabHost Phishing as a Service (PhaaS) platform were arrested last month.
In a coordinated search over three days, 37 suspects were apprehended, disrupting the well-known service.
Responsible for hosting over 40,000 domains used in phishing campaigns and having over 10,000 threat actors subscribing to the service for an average of $249 a month, the shutdown of LabHost represents a victory in the war on cyber attacks.
The platform offered up 170 impersonated brand websites, and boasted the use of LabRat – a tool, according to Europol, “designed to capture two-factor authentication codes and credentials, allowing the criminals to bypass enhanced security measures.”
There’s another angle to this story – one of perspective and caution. There are other PhaaS platforms used today that provide similar services. The popularity of LabHost indicates a thriving market of threat actors ready and willing to launch cyber attacks, providing they have the right tools at hand.
This means that even with LabHost shut down, it’s likely the 10,000 LabHost “customers” will simply shift to another platform and continue their attacks, making it necessary for organizations to ensure users are vigilant when interacting with email content that requires users to log into cloud-based applications like Microsoft 365 and others.
Through the use of new-school security awareness training, users can be taught to spot attacks that use PhaaS platforms like LabHost, Frappo and others before credentials, backing details, and credit card information is provided and compromised.
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