Instagram hijacks all start with a phish. [Research Saturday]

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4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

Guest Marcelle Lee, Senior Security Researcher and Emerging Threats Lead, from SecureWorks joins Dave to share her team's work on "Ransoms Demanded for Hijacked Instagram Accounts." An extensive phishing campaign has targeted corporate Instagram accounts since approximately August 2021. The threat actors demand ransoms from the victims to restore access. Organizations typically focus on traditional enterprise cybersecurity threats. However, some threats are more subtle, targeting organizations on unexpected platforms. In October 2021, Secureworks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) researchers identified a phishing campaign that hijacks corporate Instagram accounts, as well as accounts of individual influencers who have a large number of followers. The threat actors then extort ransom payments from the victims. The activity continues at the time of the interview. The research can be found here: Ransoms Demanded for Hijacked Instagram Accounts

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:07.0	Today's episode is sponsored by SRM, your first call for cybersecurity and
0:18.1	investigations. Threats today are evolving faster than ever before and since 2005 SRM has pioneered
0:25.3	tailored security solutions for global corporations and their executives.
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0:36.4	or navigating the murky waters of compliance and ESG challenges,
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1:01.4	unique cyber challenges.
1:03.7	Search your first call to discover how SRM can help your business. Hello everyone and welcome to the CyberWire's research Saturday.
1:26.7	I'm Dave Bitner and this is our weekly conversation with researchers and analysts tracking
1:31.6	down threats and vulnerabilities, solving some of the hard problems of protecting
1:35.9	ourselves in a rapidly evolving cyberspace.
1:39.4	Thanks for joining us.
1:45.0	So it was kind of funny, it actually came through one of our VPs. It actually came through one of our VPs.
1:52.0	They had a friend that this had happened to with their corporate
1:56.5	Instagram account so this person reached out and was like do you want to know about this? And then it got kicked down the chain and I picked it up because it seemed kind of interesting.
2:10.0	That's Marcel Lee. She's a senior security researcher and emerging threats lead at Secure Works.
2:16.2	The research we're discussing today is titled,
2:18.8	Ransoms Demanded for Hijacked Instagram accounts. What to have your voice heard. Listeners, what are you most proud of this week?
	...

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