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The FBI warns of cybercriminals using search engine advertisement services to impersonate brands and defraud users

The FBI is warning of cyber criminals using search engine advertisement services to impersonate brands and direct users to websites that were used to defraud users. The sites host ransomware and are used to steal login credentials and other financial information from users.

Crooks purchase advertisements through search engine advertisement services, feds observed threat actors using a domain that is similar to an actual business or service. When online users search for that business or service, advertisements appear at the top of search results produced by the search engine. The advertisements link to a webpage that impersonated a legitimate business.

“In instances where a user is searching for a program to download, the fraudulent webpage has a link to download software that is actually malware. The download page looks legitimate and the download itself is named after the program the user intended to download.” reads the advisory published by the FBI.

The advertisements impersonate websites of financial organizations and cryptocurrency exchange platforms. The landing websites were designed to prompt users to enter login credentials and financial information.

Below are the recommendations provided by the FBI to online users:

• Before clicking on an advertisement, check the URL to make sure the site is authentic. A malicious domain name may be similar to the intended URL but with typos or a misplaced letter.
• Rather than search for a business or financial institution, type the business’s URL into an internet browser’s address bar to access the official website directly.
• Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches. Most internet browsers allow a user to add extensions, including extensions that block advertisements. These ad blockers can be turned on and off within a browser to permit advertisements on certain websites while blocking advertisements on others.

The FBI also recommends businesses to:

• Use domain protection services to notify businesses when similar domains are registered to prevent domain spoofing.
• Educate users about spoofed websites and the importance of confirming destination URLs are correct.
• Educate users about where to find legitimate downloads for programs provided by the business.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, search engine advertisement services)

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Southwest Airlines cancels thousands of flights after winter snowstorm cbsnews.com/news/southwest… via @cbsmoneywatch

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Welcome back from the Christmas weekend. I’m Phil Rosen, reporting from Los Angeles.

Usually in December the talk of the town is upbeat and cheerful — holiday music plays and White Elephant exchanges are all the rage.

And usually the world’s leading electric vehicle brand, Tesla, joins in on that cheer. 

Despite being the most shorted stock of all time, Elon Musk’s company has finished years’ past with massive climbs.

That’s not quite the case for 2022 though. 

Tesla is among the S&P 500’s biggest losers this year, and most of its meteoric pandemic gains have been all but wiped out.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

1. Elon Musk has pointed to the Fed as reason for Tesla’s declines, with the company’s market cap shedding $600 billion on the year. 

But now that macro headwinds have made it historically cheap (and Tesla bears have made a killing on it this year), Musk said it offers a buying opportunity.

“I keep saying that Fed rate is insane, because data I’m seeing says we’re already in deflation,” he tweeted last week. “If true, then real rate of return of T-bills is roughly that of S&P500. Very smart investor I spoke to today said he’s shorting S&P…”

Inflation soared to a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, and with the most recent data clocking in north of 7%, it remains far above the Fed’s 2% goal. 

The central bank has attempted to cool prices with an extremely aggressive series of interest rate hikes. 

The idea is that those higher rates flow through into larger returns from savings accounts and government bonds, which makes higher risk investments like  stocks less appealing in comparison. 

But to Musk, prices have already started dropping, which eliminates the need for the Fed to keep rates so high. As he wrote in another tweet last week: 

“In simple terms: as bank savings account interest rates, which are guaranteed, start to approach stock market returns, which are not guaranteed, people will increasingly move their money out of stocks into cash, thus causing stocks to drop.”

While Musk isn’t wrong that demand for stocks has waned, there’s still a flaw in his argument, according to Tesla investor and Future Fund manager Gary Black. 

“Elon – you can’t compare a very short duration bank with long duration $TSLA stock… Since you closed on TWTR, TSLA [is down] -38% vs NDX [Nasdaq 100] -1%. If it was all [interest] rates, NDX would be down a similar amount,” Black tweeted at Musk.

In other words, while higher interest rates undoubtedly drag on stocks, that doesn’t explain why Tesla has seen outsized losses since Musk closed his purchase of Twitter.

In any case, Black remains a Tesla believer and continues to own it, as does ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, who has been buying the dip all quarter. 

Ultimately, Tesla investors shouldn’t feel alone in their pain amid downtrodden stock prices this year. Between giants Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta, the tech sector’s shed roughly $3.65 trillion in market value this year.

How has your view of Tesla stock changed since October? Tweet me (@philrosenn) or email me (prosen@insider.com) to let me know.

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In other news:

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

2. Earnings on deck: Heiwado Co, Okuwa Co, and more, all reporting.

3. Wall Street experts shared 20 books that should be on your wishlist right now. With stocks tumbling this year, these books can help you understand where to invest and how to conquer bear markets. Check out their picks here.

4. These are the top-performing funds of 2022. Their managers told us how they overcame a brutal year for the stock market, and shared the stock picks that worked best.

5. The DEA said that a global drug cartel used Binance to launder up to $40 million in illicit profits. According to a Forbes report, the crypto exchange has been working with investigators to track down suspects involved in the crime — here’s how.

6. Rising housing inventory will accelerate a 20% plunge in home prices. That’s according to Pantheon Macro, which said that the scale of the demand collapse this past year remains enough by itself to weigh home prices down. Even so, a meaningful recovery “is still miles away.”

7. The stock market’s fear gauge will plummet in 2023 as historic inflation begins to drop. And, in Fundstrat’s view, that will tee up the S&P 500 for a 20% surge. Once the Fed initiates a policy pivot, the firm believes equity concerns among investors will begin to alleviate. 

8. The world’s top investment firms pay Rob Arnott for advice. He shared two trades that could deliver 15% annualized returns over the next decade — and breaks down why inflation might remain elevated for far longer than investors are expecting.

9. This Wall Street headhunter’s rapid ascent was underpinned by accusations of harassment and abuse. Durlston Partners wooed employees with the promise of fast cash, epic parties, and an unbeatable culture. Ex-staffers tell quite a different story.

Markets Insider

10. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has continued to generate steady returns even as tumult hit markets this year. The Oracle of Omaha has advised against switching out of stocks for cash or gold during wars. To Buffett, productive businesses make a better investment over safe-haven assets. 

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Curated by Phil Rosen in Los Angeles. Feedback or tips? Tweet @philrosenn or email prosen@insider.com

Edited by Max Adams (@maxradams) in New York and Hallam Bullock (@hallam_bullock) in London.

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The post Russians launch artillery strikes on Ochakiv community’s water area in Mykolaiv region appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

A day after President Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations over Ukraine, Russia’s foreign minister lashed out saying Kyiv and the West sought to destroy his country and Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demands or its army will.

Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed Putin’s offer to talk, with his forces battering Ukrainian towns with missiles and rockets and Moscow continuing to demand that Kyiv recognise its conquest of a fifth of the country.

Kyiv says it will fight until Russia withdraws.

“Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy,” state news agency TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

“The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.”

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “special operation” to “denazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, which he said was a threat to Russia.

Kyiv and the West say Putin’s invasion was merely an imperialist land grab. The United States and its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its invasion and sent billions of dollars in assistance to the Ukrainian government.

Just last week, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was visiting Washington, the United States announced another $1.85 billion in military assistance for Ukraine, including a transfer of the Patriot Air Defense System, angering Moscow.

“It is no secret to anyone that the strategic goal of the United States and its NATO allies is to defeat Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism for significantly weakening or even destroying our country,” Lavrov further told TASS.

He reiterated that Russia and the United States cannot maintain normal connection, blaming the administration of the U.S. President Joe Biden.

While Moscow had planned a swift operation to take over its neighbour, the war is now in its 11th month, marked by many embarrassing Russian battlefield setbacks.

In the latest attack to expose gaps in Russia’s air defences, a drone believed to be Ukrainian penetrated hundreds of kilometres through Russian airspace on Monday, causing a deadly explosion at the main base for its strategic bombers.

Russian forces have been engaged for months in fierce fighting in the east and south of Ukraine, to defend the lands Moscow proclaimed it annexed in September and which make up the broader Ukrainian industrial Donbas region.

Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian attacks in the areas of two settlements in the Luhansk region and six in the Donetsk region, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said on Tuesday.

In his nightly video message on Monday, Zelenskiy called the situation along the frontline in Donbas “difficult and painful”.

Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst based in Kyiv, said heavy fighting was going on around elevated areas near Kreminna in the Luhansk region.

He also said that fighting has picked up along the Bakhmut and Avdiivka, a line of contact further south in the Donetsk region, after a brief easing in previous days.

“The arc of fire in Donetsk region continues to burn,” Zhdanov said in a social media video post.

Zelenskiy said as a result of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure nearly nine million people were without power. That figure amounts to about a quarter of Ukraine’s population.

Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which supplies electricity to Kyiv, said late on Monday that while the power situation has been improving in the city, blackouts will continue.

“While repairs are underway, emergency shutdowns will continue,” Kovalenko said on his Facebook page.

Moscow on Monday said it had shot down a drone believed to be Ukrainian, causing it to crash at the Engels air base, where three service members were killed. Ukraine did not comment, under its usual policy on incidents inside Russia.

A suspected drone struck the same base on Dec. 5.

The base, the main airfield for the bombers that Kyiv says Moscow has used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian frontier. The same planes are also designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles as part of Russia’s long-term strategic deterrent.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement no planes were damaged, but Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts said several had been destroyed. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

Putin hosted leaders of other former Soviet states in St Petersburg on Monday for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States group, which Ukraine has long since quit.

The invasion of Ukraine has been a test of Russia’s longstanding authority among other ex-Soviet states.

In televised remarks, Putin made no direct reference to the war, while saying threats to the security and stability of the Eurasian region were increasing.

“Unfortunately challenges and threats in this area, especially from the outside, are only growing each year,” he said. “We also have to acknowledge unfortunately that disagreements also arise between member states of the commonwealth.”

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