F-Alert report: cyber threats in March 2024

If you haven’t ever lost your smartphone or had it stolen, it’s likely you know someone who has. iPhone theft has historically been a lucrative business for criminals — but that’s all about to change. Ash Shatrieh, Threat Intelligence Researcher at F‑Secure, explains how Apple’s new passcode-free Stolen Device Protection works and how biometric authentication could stop criminals in their tracks. 

Once upon a time, phishing was an underground operation. Criminals would receive secret invites to exclusive forums on the dark web, where they’d source information and resources for phishing scams. But today’s scammer is bolder. Laura Kankaala, Threat Intelligence Lead at F‑Secure, investigates how instant messaging app, Telegram, is being used by criminals to publicly advertise and sell phishing kits. 

The largest data leak of all time by a considerable margin. That’s what happened when a firewall misconfiguration enabled unauthorized access to data breach search engine, Leak Lookup’s, data last December. Joel Latto, Threat Advisor at F‑Secure, explores what this stolen data consists of, how criminals could use these billions of stolen records, and what you can do to protect yourself. 

Cyber criminals are tricking Google into advertising malicious ads masquerading as downloads of popular free software. Amit Tambe, Researcher at F‑Secure, uncovers what criminals are doing to bypass Google’s filters and advertise malware as a sponsored Google Ad. He explains what you can do to avoid dangerous websites and how to identify genuine software downloads from malicious copies.