McAfee Labs report finds Cyberattacks target social media users

McAfee Inc. has just released its McAfee Labs Threats Report: September 2017, which examines the rise of script-based malware.

It also suggests five proven threat hunting best practices, provides an analysis of the recent WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks, assesses reported attacks across industries, and reveals growth trends in malware, ransomware, mobile malware, and other threats in Q2 2017. McAfee Labs saw healthcare surpass public sector to report the greatest number of security incidents in Q2

Whereas the Faceliker Trojan helped drive quarter's 67% increase in new malware samples from the social media landscape.

The second quarter of 2017 saw Facebook emerge as a notable attack vector, with Faceliker accounting for as much as 8.9% of the quarter's 52 million newly detected malware samples.

For those who are not aware, this Trojan infects a user's browser when he/she visits malicious or compromised websites. It then hijacks his/her Facebook "likes" and promotes the content without his/her knowledge or permission.

Doing so at scale can earn money for the malicious parties behind Faceliker given the hijacked clicks can make a news article, video, website or ad appear more popular or trusted than it truly is.

"Faceliker leverages and manipulates the social media and app based communications we increasingly use today," said Vincent Weafer, Vice President for McAfee Labs.

McAfee Labs' quarterly analysis of publicly disclosed security incidents found the public sector to be the most impacted North American sector over the last six quarters, but healthcare overtook it in Q2 with 26% of incidents.

You can read the entire report here.