At the User’s Expense: Threat Actors Weaponize Companies’ Employee Reimbursements During the Pandemic

Microsoft EOP

Symantec

MimecastBy Harsh Patel, Cofense Phishing Defense Center 

With the health crisis that is COVID-19, employees are dutifully working from home. While some already had home offices decked out with dual monitors, printers and the like to complete their jobs, others did not. Because of this many companies took to offering their employees a chance to buy the tools needed for their newly designated remote positions through added reimbursements. 

The Cofense Phishing Defense Center (PDC) has identified a campaign that attempts to steal employee credentials by leveraging reimbursement emails. This campaign was seen across multiple employee groups in the insurance, medical, professional services and banking industries.

Figures 1 and 2: Email Body 

The first thing the recipient will notice is the nickname field displays their company’s name. This will make it appear as if the email originated from within the company to put the recipient at ease about its legitimacy. However, the real sender can be seen right next to it. In this case, it was sent from a compromised account. The “Expense Reimbursement” subject also indicates conversation that would happen between a user and finance to further help with the credibility.

The email body continues to explain the reason for this email, and mentions an attached file with expense reimbursement certification, list of qualified employees and attached reimbursement policy. Although there is no attached file, the email contains a button “CLICK HERE TO REVIEW” with a hyperlink to take the recipient to the phishing landing page.

Figure 3: Phishing Page 

Upon clicking the button found in the email, users are redirected to the page shown in Figure 3. At a glance, it appears to be a login page for Adobe, offering the user options to view, download or send. Note that the email of the recipient is already filled out; the only field left empty is for the password. Despite all these attempts to appear legitimate, this is not the real Adobe login page. The URL in the address bar is not Adobe.com and this isn’t the typical Adobe login users would normally see or receive.  

However, should users continue to enter login details, they are redirected to their company’s site as if nothing happened. And that is exactly what threat actors want. These pointless redirects to legitimate documents or company sites have become increasingly common as a way to distract users from the series of spoofed pages and/or actions they have just taken.  

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