Phishers targeting Indian Entertainment Industry: Symantec

Phishers are increasingly eyeing at the Indian Media and Entertainment industry, which was identified as the sixteenth most targeted website category by phishers, according to Symantec Intelligence earlier. The perfect illustration of the finding is a recent phishing incident where phishers used a popular song from the Telugu movie "Brindavanam" as an attempt to steal critical information from users.

According to Symantec February Intelligence Report 2013, one in every 466.3 emails globally was identified as compromised due to phishing attack.

"Phishers’ strategy of redirecting to a legitimate Web page reinforces the validity of the fake login for duped users. Once the users fell victim by entering their login credentials, they can easily steal users information for identity theft purposes," said Abhijit Limaye, Director, Development, Security Response, Symantec.

Affected site displays an option of viewing the musical number from the movie "Brindavanam". Users are then required to log in credentials for viewing the video. After login credentials are entered, users are redirected to this legitimate movie website which features the same video. Due to the popularity of this musical number, and the star cast, phishers were probably hoping for a large audience, increasing the number of user credentials they could steal.