In the latest report released by Avast, it was revealed that ransomware spreading hackers were constantly targeting elderly people and youngsters were being lured into Instagram or TikTok scams.
As most of the aged community, i.e. those above 65 are using desktop or laptops, hackers are seeing them as easy prey to spread ransomware, bank related customer support scams and Trojans and botnets through video calling apps.
Security researchers from Avast Threat Labs found that it’s not only the elders who are being targeted. But also the young generation between 25-35 are falling prey to Instagram and TikTok related dating or phishing scams where threat actors send fraudulent emails to victims stating that their videos will be deleted from the platform as they violate copyrights or need to be eligible for verification. So, they are being asked to click on the email links that lead them to banking frauds, identity theft when personal details are revealed, and sometimes download spying malware to their systems.
Mostly, there is a difference in the usage of sometimes devices between youngsters, millennials and elderly groups. And this is where cyber criminals are smartly targeting these groups with scams by adopting the current trending topics or usage trends.
Between January and April this year, the tech support team of Avast blocked over 1.46 million ransomware attacks on desktops.
Coming to threats targeting mobile devices, the company says that it blocked over 3 million adware attacks, 7.2 million banking Trojans, and over 1.8 million harmful downloads leading to social engineering attacks from January to October 2021.
FluBot malware that was spreading widely from west to east was also blocked between Aug-Sept this year and the released stats say that the malware detecting firm blocked over 35,000 attacks on an average globally.
The post Ransomware threat to elders and youngsters falling for Instagram Cyber Scams appeared first on Cybersecurity Insiders.
November 25, 2021 at 08:33PM
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