Phishers Using QR Codes to Target Firms in Numerous Sectors

About 29% of the more than 1,000 emails with malicious QR codes were sent to the most famous target, a significant Energy corporation with headquarters in the US.

According to Nathaniel Raymond, a cyber threat intelligence analyst at Cofense, the other top 4 targeted industries are Manufacturing, Insurance, Technology, and Financial Services, which saw 15%, 9%, 7%, and 6% of the campaign traffic, respectively.

Phishers use QR codes to target businesses in different industries

Victims are first exposed to the assault when they open a phishing email with a PNG or PDF attachment.

Then it offers them the option to alter their Microsoft account security settings or upgrade their account to two-factor authentication by scanning a QR code.

Victims are instructed to do the task within two to three days to create a sense of urgency.

Most of the embedded QR codes point users to Bing redirect URLs.

Email security may be circumvented by leveraging trusted domains, obfuscation techniques, and concealing URLs behind QR codes integrated into PNG or PDF attachments, according to Raymond.

Although the entire campaign was made up of several domains, the Bing redirect URLs made up most of it, accounting for 26% of the phishing links utilized in the QR Codes. 

The Salesforce application URL took up 15% of the total.

Related Post: QR Code Hacking Campaign Targets Microsoft Credentials