Cybercrime activity on Telegram rose by 53 percent in May and June 2024
KUALA LUMPUR: Cybercrime activity on Telegram increased by 53 percent from May to June 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to Kaspersky Digital Trace Intelligence data.
“Cybercriminals actively operate channels and groups on Telegram dedicated to discussing fraud schemes, distributing leaked databases, and trading in various criminal services such as cashing money, forging documents, and providing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack services,” Kaspersky said in a statement. a statement on Tuesday.
A DDoS attack is an attack on a computer network. It occurs because the computer network system of an organization or company has been infected with a Trojan, a type of malicious software (malware) that disguises its existence as one of the legitimate operating systems, such as bank transaction systems, service applications, and others.
Kaspersky Digital Trace Intelligence Analyst Alexey Bannikov said the growing interest in Telegram from the cybercriminal community is mostly due to the’messenger’ (messaging service) being so popular that it reaches 900 million users a month.
“Secondly, it is marketed as the most secure and free messaging service that does not collect any user data, thus ‘threat actors’ (cyber attack perpetrators) think it is safe and will not be punished.
“In addition, finding or establishing a community on Telegram is easy, and various other factors allow various channels on Telegram, including those belonging to cybercriminals, to gather followers quickly,” he said.
Bannikov said there is another trend that Telegram has emerged as a platform for hackers to make statements and express their views.”
“Due to its wide user base and rapid content distribution through Telegram channels, hackers find the platform an easy tool to perform DDoS and other methods of disruption against targeted infrastructure.
“In addition, they can release data stolen from the attacked organization into the public domain using shadowy channels,” he said.
— AGENCIES
