Hackers are using the death of Pope Francis to steal data and deceive online users, according to a study conducted by the cybersecurity firm Check Point.
Several posts have been identified on social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok, attempting to trick users into accessing the embedded links in the posts, writes Politico.
For example, a link from a fake news story led to a Google page promoting a gift card scam, designed to trick people into providing sensitive information.
Another post on TikTok claimed that the news of the pope's death was a hoax, attempting to encourage online sharing. Other posts featured artificially generated images depicting the pope.
Such campaigns often arise around major events, when hackers try to provoke emotional reactions or take advantage of people's curiosity to lure them to fraudulent websites.
"Cybercriminals thrive on chaos and curiosity. Whenever a significant event occurs, we observe a sudden surge in scams designed to exploit public interest," said Rafa Lopez, a security engineer at Check Point.
Researchers have dubbed this phenomenon "cyber threat opportunism," a trend that peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Google identified 18 million malware and phishing messages in Gmail per day related to the pandemic.
Instagram's parent company, Meta, and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
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