Human manipulation is the main driver behind the success of cyber threats, new research from Avast has found.
Social engineering campaigns deployed to spread scams and similar threats accounted for 90% of all blocked threats across the mobile device landscape.
YouTube is also fast becoming a breeding ground for phishing campaigns, social engineering using video content and hijacking channels to spread scams.
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Avast outlined how threat actors are increasingly turning to YouTube as a means to spread scams and deepfakes through seemingly legitimate channels.
The scammers often offer to partner with channels with an established audience, building trust along the way, before sending malware that results in the channel being stolen through account compromise or cookie theft.
Additionally, threat actors on YouTube also exploit hobbies such as gaming and common antivirus concerns by including malicious links in the video descriptions that appear to be legitimate software downloads but instead download and install malware on the victim’s device.
Cryptocurrency interest scams are also growing in popularity, with cryptocurrency news and information channels stolen by threat actors and then used to share crypto fraud, such as giveaways that require a deposit.
In 2023 alone, Avast protected four million users from threats spread via YouTube. More recent figures from January to March 2024 show that 500,000 people have been protected so far.