Software developers are nowadays the most frequently targeted by hackers who carry out cyber attacks against the tech industry. The criminals use the public profiles of the developers to carry out phishing campaigns.
The tech industry also accounts for almost half of the rogue phishing campaigns. This is apparent from the August 2019 Threat Intelligence Bulletin of security company Glasswall, writes ZDNet. The report describes the industries most frequently targeted by phishing.
Attackers who focus on tech companies often aim to steal intellectual property and other data. The data is then sold or used for business or state espionage. Data is also used to build your own versions of products.
Developers
According to the report, attackers who have focused their attention on the tech sector will mainly go after the software developers. The main reason for this is that developers lay the foundation for building the software.
This means that developers often have administrator privileges. These privileges can be used by an attacker to gain access to networks, in order to carry out further malicious practices.
Large online presence
Although software developers know a lot about technology, they too can become victims of phishing. Attackers can use specially designed messages aimed at an individual in an organization they want access to.
Developers often have a professional profile on social networks such as LinkedIn, because they often work relatively briefly for a company. This information can be used by attackers to find out what the specific interests and skills of a target are, and then turn it into a spear phishing email.
In many cases, the attacker makes an email claiming to be a recruiter looking for someone with the skills or programming languages of the victim. The offer could then be in a PDF, for example.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.