Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of cyber attacks has increased alarmingly and there are no indications that they will end or slow down.

In early April millions of people had data exposed due to at least two attacks on large platforms in the market. In the case of Linkedin, around 500 million user registrations, including their email addresses, phone numbers and links to profiles on other social networks, were offered for sale on a popular forum among hackers.

The disclosed data does not appear to contain information such as credit card numbers or other financial details, or even legal documents that could be used for fraud.

A CyberNews investigator has warned that the lack of this type of more sensitive documentation or personal identification does not mean that the disclosed data is not dangerous, since “the attackers Particularly certain may combine information found in stolen files with other data breaches in order to create detailed profiles of their potential victims.” Having access to this type of information is guaranteed to make it easier to convincingly stage a phishing or other computer attack.

Although it may have opened doors to more dangerous attacks, data theft linked to Linkedin can be termed low risk compared to the attack that involved three products used daily by large part of the population: Netflix, Google Play Store and WhatsApp.

Available on Google's Play Store for two months, “FlixOnline”, a fake application that used a Netflix-like logo to spread malware, was downloaded more than 500 times. As soon as the application was downloaded, the malware would spread through WhatsApp, monitoring user notifications, the victim's groups and contacts, where fraudulent links were automatically sent. In addition to spreading malicious software and false or harmful messages, the cyber attack also allowed, if successful, to steal credentials and credit card information.

The app has already been removed from the Google Play Store, but Check Point Research urged all infected users to remove this app from their device and modify their passwords to ensure security.