This password-stealing phishing attack comes disguised as a fake meeting request from the boss

Stu Sjouwerman | Feb 4, 2019
Exec-Board-Mtg-desktop-edited-768x643

Danny Palmer at ZDNet reported: "A widespread phishing campaign is targeting executives across a number of industries with messages asking to reschedule a board meeting in an effort to steal logins and passwords.

Spotted by researchers at security firm GreatHorn, the phishing messages spoof the name and email address of the CEO of the company being targeted and uses a subject line including the company name and a note about the meeting to gain the attention of potential victims. Users are more likely to fall for attacks they believe to come from their boss.

The contents of the phishing email is simple: it says a board meeting has been rescheduled and asks users to take part in a poll to choose a new date.

If users click the link, they're taken to a webpage which appears to be a login page for Microsoft Outlook and Office 365, but this is in fact a phishing site — any information entered into it will go directly into the hands of the attackers.

The attack is slightly different if the email is viewed on a mobile device — the display name is changed to 'Note to Self' but the contents of the message stays the same.

With the phishing email targeting high-level executives like CFOs, CTOs and SVPs, a successful attack could provide attackers with access to highly sensitive data across the corporate network — and the compromised accounts could also be used to help conduct further malicious campaigns.

The fake meeting phishing attack appears to be prolific — researchers at GreatHorn say it was found targeting one in seven of the firm's customers. In each case, the attackers were eliminated before damage could be done.

It's believed that the campaign is still active and that the phishing URL  claiming to be windows related — is still up.

Users are therefore warned to be aware of the campaign and to be suspicious of any emails containing a subject line following a pattern of: New message: [Company Name] February in-person Board Mtg scheduling (2/24/19 update) Full article here:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-password-stealing-phishing-attack-comes-disguised-as-a-fake-meeting-request-from-the-boss/

Cross-posted with grateful acknowledgment to ZDNet.


Find out how affordable new-school security awareness training is for your organization. Get a quote now.

 
Get A Quote
Request A Demo
 

Topics: Phishing

Secure the Digital Workforce: Human + AI

KnowBe4 empowers the modern workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 is the pioneer of digital workforce security, securing both AI agents and humans. The KnowBe4 Platform provides attack simulation and training, collaboration security, and agent security powered by AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) and a proprietary Risk Score. The platform leverages 15 years of behavioral data to combat advanced threats including social engineering, prompt injection, and shadow AI. By securing humans and agents, KnowBe4 leads the industry in workforce trust and defense.