By Mikayla Fanto
Microsoft and Google users are being targeted with ransomware attacks sent through malicious emails.
Cyber-attacks are becoming more common in the growing number of organisations using cloud collaboration tools.
Proofpoint said they have observed an increasing amount of threat actors targeting Microsoft and Google applications including Office365, Azure, OneDrive, SharePoint, G-Suite, and Firebase storage to host and send threats to users.
Proofpoint said they’ve observed seven million malicious messages from Microsoft Office 365 and 45 million malicious messages from Google infrastructure so far this year.
Ryan Kalember, Executive Vice President of cybersecurity strategy at Proofpoint said email protection is becoming very important for information security in cloud networks.
“Our research clearly demonstrates that attackers are using both Microsoft and Google infrastructure to disseminate malicious messages and target people as they leverage popular cloud collaboration tools. When coupled with heightened ransomware, supply chain, and cloud account compromise, advanced people-centric email protection must remain a top priority for security leaders,” he said.
Supply Chain findings said, “98 per cent of nearly 3,000 monitored organizations across the U.S., UK, and Australia, received a threat from a supplier domain over a 7-day window in February 2021.”
Email has once again become the leading platform for ransomware attacks allowing hackers to gain access to personal information and steal credentials.
Microsoft has recently been targeted by a phishing attack featuring a Microsoft SharePoint URL claiming to host a corporate policy and COVID-19 guidelines document.
The document featured below contained a link to a fake Microsoft authentication page designed to harvest user credentials.
The email, targeting over 5 thousand consumers was directed at users in transportation, manufacturing, and business services.
Zoom was also used as a domain for a phishing campaign featuring the name “.onmicrosoft.com”.
Over 10 thousand messages were sent containing a URL leading to a fake webmail authentication page designed to harvest user credentials.
Proofpoint said they have found attackers are using Google and Microsoft as a platform to target its users and as a distribution point for malicious messages.
“As a leading cybersecurity vendor with our DNA in email security, we are have a nearly 100% efficacy rate on stopping advanced threats arriving through email and invest over 20% of our annual revenue on innovation, including advanced threat detection and expert threat systems to stop people-centric data breaches.”
