Cybersecurity Blog

Campuses seeing the “trusted friend” credential stealing attack – 09/06/19

 

With the start of the new school year scammers and hackers galore begin targeting students once again. Usually though, it is a complete stranger who is compromising our data not someone we trust. Welcome to 2019 when even your friends cannot be trusted to use your credentials for their personal gain.

A Canadian university has seen a student fall victim to a Snapchat credential stealing attack. The unfortunate student was asked by a trusted friend for their Snapchat credentials. When the student handed them over, their friend then send messages to all of his contacts. The messages explained that he was having trouble accessing a class timetable or a library resource and asked for the contact’s username and password to their school account so they could get the information.

Shortly after, the trusted friend attempted to use the victimized student’s credentials to login to their student account. The attempt was blocked and the account was locked down. As of the writing of this article, we are unaware if the trusted friend was sent any other credentials. However, the victimized student had to do some serious damage control with their friends on their contact list.

This is a gentle reminder not to trust anybody with your login credentials. Not your colleague, not your best friend, not your significant other nor that friend looking for help accessing information. If a friend  or colleague is asking for credentials so they can access information, send them to the IT Service Desk. They will be glad to help.

 

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