So, why WhatsApp? Well, like most brands impersonated in phishing attacks, WhatsApp is a reputable, trustworthy company that has over 75 million users in the US. Understanding exactly why they’re impersonating certain brands – as well as the techniques used whilst doing so – is vital to avoid them. Why Whatsapp, Why Now?Īlmost all Phishing emails impersonate well-known brands. On this page, they’ll be asked to click “Allow” to confirm they aren’t a robot – but taking this action will download the malware onto their device. If the play button is clicked by a victim, they’ll be redirected to another website. Because this is a legitimate organization, many email spam filters don’t recognize it as unsafe. To make matters worse, the email address the messages are sent from – which comes up as “WhatsApp Notifier” – is linked to the Center for Road Safety in Moscow. According to Bleeping Computer, the shady emails contain a “play” button, as well as details about the duration of the audio recording. The threat actor essentially impersonates WhatsApp in email messages. Researchers at Armorblox – an email security company that uses Natural Language Understanding to detect suspicious emails – first discovered the WhatsApp impersonators. However, employees working in the US and beyond also have to be aware of the tell-tale signs of a phishing attack, as technology can only do so much to protect you.
The phishing attack – which has been observed bypassing email spam filters and unleashing malware on victims’ computers when successful – will find it easier to infect devices without antivirus software installed. A new email phishing campaign that sees threat actors impersonate instant messaging app WhatsApp has been sent to almost 30,000 email addresses.
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