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That Facebook Messenger update could be a phishing scam
The Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Group-IB has discovered a large-scale phishing campaign which is being used to target Facebook Messenger users worldwide.
The company's Digital Risk Protection (DRP) analysts have found evidence proving that users in more that 80 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North and South America have been affected by the campaign which uses fake ads promoting an updated version of Facebook Messenger to harvest users' login credentials.
So far, Group-IB has discovered almost 1,000 fake Facebook profiles being used in the scheme that first appeared on its radar last summer when its DRP analysts in Asia and Europe began detecting traces of the same fraudulent campaign.
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Head of the digital risk protection department at Group-IB in Europe, Dmitriy Tiunkin provided further insight on why internet users often fall for these types of scams online in a press release, saying;
“The internet has made people abandon critical thinking. Living in the era of instant-everything, clicking on an attractive ad, proposal, headline became a natural human reflex. This didn’t come unnoticed by fraudsters who have been relentlessly feeding on users’ carelessness. It is up to brands to set things straight in this endless stand-off by ensuring that their name isn’t used to trick unsuspecting customers into a scam, with digital risk protection services serving as a silver bullet in this case.”
Facebook Messenger scam campaign
While this new Facebook Messenger scam campaign originated in the summer of 2020, it began picking up steam in April of this year when the number of posts on the social network inviting users to install the latest Messenger update reached 5,700.
In order to appear more legitimate, the cybercriminals behind the campaign registered for accounts on Facebook with names that mimic the real app such as Messanger, Meseenger, Massengar while using the official Facebook Messenger logo as their profile picture. At the same time though, they also used link shortening services like bit.ly to bypass Facebook's scam filters.
If a user clicks on the link in one of these fake ads, they are taken to a fake Facebook Messenger website with a login form used by the scam campaign to harvest their credentials. The cybercriminals used a number of different free web hosting services to create these fake login pages and they even offered Facebook users non-existent features such as being able to see who visited their profiles or to view deleted messages to entice them to login.
Group-IB has informed Facebook regarding this campaign but until it is shut down, users of the social network should be on the lookout for these fake ads and avoid clicking on shortened URLs as they can lead to phishing pages or even malware. Misspellings in brand names and web addresses are another thing to look out for when trying to identify scam campaigns online.
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Date
20 Apr 2021Sources
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Intel to splash $20 billion on state-of-the-art chip factory the size of a village
Read MoreIntel has announced it will spend $20 billion on a new bleeding-edge chip manufacturing campus in Ohio, USA.
The 1,000-acre “mega-site” will house up to eight separate fabs and create roughly 3,000 permanent jobs, which would make it one of the largest chip manufacturing facilities in the world.
Intel says planning for the first two factories will begin with immediate effect, and expects ground to be broken later this year. Assuming there are no unexpected delays, chip production should begin in 2025.
Onshoring chip production
As the US looks to onshore larger portions of the semiconductor supply chain amid rising tensions with China (which claims ownership of Taiwan, home to market leader TSMC), the new Intel mega-facility will be of significant strategic importance.
And while the factories won’t go online for a number of years yet, the additional capacity created by the new campus will also help address the ever-rising demand for chips. According to figures from Gartner, the semiconductor industry was worth more than $500 billion in 2021, up 25% on the previous year.
“Today’s investment marks another significant way Intel is leading the effort to restore US semiconductor manufacturing leadership. Intel’s actions will help build a more resilient supply chain and ensure reliable access to advanced semiconductors for years to come,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO.
“These factories will create a new epicenter for advanced chipmaking in the US that will bolster Intel’s domestic lab-to-fab pipeline and strengthen Ohio’s leadership in research and high tech.”
The site of Intel's new chip manufacturing campus in Ohio, USA. (Image credit: Intel) Intel has struggled in recent years to keep up with rivals TSMC and Samsung, suffering repeated delays to the launch of its 7nm manufacturing process and other setbacks. Meanwhile, TSMC is taking orders for advanced chips manufactured using 3nm technology, which will go into the next generation of laptops, computers, smartphones and more.
However, Intel says the new factories will help close the gap on its Asian competitors, by laying the foundations for the launch of its own new cutting-edge process nodes. The Ohio facility will also support demand among third-parties for Intel’s foundry services, as part of the firm’s IDM 2.0 plans.
“Intel is opening its factory doors wide to serve the needs of foundry customers around the globe, many of whom are looking for more geographical balance in the semiconductor supply chain,” added Dr. Randhir Thakur, who heads up Intel Foundry Services.
“The Ohio factories are designed for the ‘Angstrom era’, with support for Intel’s most advanced process technologies, including Intel 18A.”
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