---
title: "Cyber Security News Update, Week 31 of 2019 | DuoCircle"
description: "It wouldn’t be a week if there was some scam aimed at Apple customers. Now comes word of a phony Apple phishing email."
image: "https://www.duocircle.com/images/og-default.png"
canonical: "https://www.duocircle.com/blog/announcements/cyber-security-news-update-week-31-of-2019/"
---

Quick Answer

Cybersecurity headlines for the week of July 31, 2019\. Scamicide flagged a polished Apple phishing email that omits the recipient's name and account number. A YouTube phishing message claims the channel has spam videos and requests personal information. Bleeping Computer reported a US State Police extortion scam in which the sender impersonates a detective offering to delete child porn evidence for $2,000 in Bitcoin and provides a callback number. SC Magazine described a new SHTML-based phishing attack against UK finance sector targets that uses server-parsed HTML attachments with JavaScript to disguise malicious URLs. Trend Micro identified PowerPoint malware that triggers on mouse hover rather than click. Help Net Security reported a ransomware attack on Johannesburg's City Power that disrupted electricity sales and outage response. Three Louisiana school districts (Sabine, Morehouse, and Ouachita) were hit hard enough that the governor declared a state of emergency. Capital One disclosed a cloud-infrastructure breach affecting 106 million accounts.

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![Cyber Security](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/07/email-migration-service-1816.jpg) 

It wouldn’t be a week if there was some scam aimed at Apple customers. Now comes [word](https://scamicide.com/2019/07/25/scam-of-the-day-july-26-2019-phony-apple-phishing-email/) of a phony Apple phishing email. “Although the email address from which it was sent appears to be legitimate, upon closer examination you can determine it is not an official email address of Apple. As **phishing emails** go, this one is pretty good.”

“Obviously if you do not have an account with Apple you know that this is a **phishing scam**, but even if you do have an account with Apple, there are a number of indications that this is a phishing email. Legitimate companies would refer to your specific account number in the email. They also would specifically direct the email to you by your name. This email had no salutation whatsoever.”

## YouTube

[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbUW6S%5FpkhQ) got into the phishing scam action this week. If you receive a notification from YouTube that says something to the effect of “_We received a complaint that there are many spam videos on your YouTube channel_…” and it includes a request for personal information, you can be sure it’s a scam.

[![phishing scam](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/07/office-365-migration-service-2807.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/07/office-365-migration-service-2807.jpg)

## US State Police

Now references to the _State Police are being used to scam people_. Found on [Bleeping Computer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-us-state-police-extortion-scam-includes-contact-numbers/), “A new extortion scam is underway that pretends to be from a US State Police detective who is willing to delete child porn evidence if you send them $2,000 in bitcoins. Pretending to be from a state police detective is a new twist, but what really stands out is that they also include a contact phone number that can be used to call the scammer.”

“Users have reported receiving these emails from states such as California, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota, New York, and Tennessee.”

## Phishing Phrontier

A new type of **phishing attack** appeared this week that uses server-parsed HTML ([SHTML](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/519619/what-is-shtml)). According to [SC Magazine](https://www.scmagazineuk.com/new-type-phishing-attack-targets-uk-finance-sector/article/1591310), “This particular type of phishing uses SHTML file attachments with JavaScript code, that allows the unsafe URL to be disguised and hidden away from the user.”

It’s really nothing more than an email with a malicious HTML document attached. _Opening the document launches the attack_.

## PowerPoint Malware

Now comes word of malware that can be launched without clicking on anything. As discovered on [Extreme Tech](https://www.extremetech.com/computing/250793-hovering-links-can-install-new-malware), “Security firm Trend Micro says a new method of delivering malware has popped up that doesn’t require you to even click on anything. All you need to do is **hover your mouse over the wrong link**.”

The article goes on to say that at least it’s not a link directly embedded in an email. Rather it’s a link embedded in PowerPoint presentations.

## Body Count

Sure a _**ransomware attack** can cost you money_ if you do not have [phishing protection](/email/phishing-protection). It can also leave you without electricity. According to an [article](https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/07/26/ransomware-johannesburg/) on Help Net Security, “A ransomware attack aimed at City Power, the electricity provider for Johannesburg (aka Joburg), South Africa, has resulted in some residents temporarily without power.”

Apparently, the virus attacked the company’s database and software; affected customers’ ability to buy electricity and upload invoices; and affected the company’s ability to respond to outages.

## School Districts

It’s one thing for hackers to go after big, bad corporations with no [email security service](/). But it’s another thing when they go after school districts. And that’s exactly what they did when they hit THREE school districts in Louisiana. In fact, it was so bad, the governor declared a **state of emergency**.

According to [SC Magazine](https://www.scmagazine.com/home/security-news/government-and-defense/louisiana-declares-state-of-emergency-after-cyberattacks-hit-three-school-districts/?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcampaign=SCUS%5FNewswire%5F20190729&hmSubId=01xQvtS0ero1&email%5Fhash=0da939dab246e8101d6090def505f6f5&mpweb=1325-9434-1896988), “In what is a first for Louisiana, its governor has declared a state of emergency after three school systems in the state were hit with cyberattacks. Gov. John Bel Edwards issued the declaration in response to cyber incidents that took place over the last few weeks at Sabine, Morehouse, and Ouachita parishes in North Louisiana.”

[![ cyberattacks](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/07/office-365-migration-service-7792.jpg)](https://media.mailhop.org/duocircle/images/2019/07/office-365-migration-service-7792.jpg)

## Capital One Bank

Even the big boys get hit sometimes. Capital One, [the tenth largest bank in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5Fof%5Flargest%5Fbanks%5Fin%5Fthe%5FUnited%5FStates), was hit this week with a massive data breach impacting 106 million accounts. According to [Security Week](https://www.securityweek.com/capitalone-discloses-massive-data-breach-106-million-impacted), “Capital One said on Monday that a malicious individual was able to _exploit a vulnerability in cloud infrastructure used by the company and gain access to sensitive data on more than 100 million customers and credit applicants_.” The good news is they caught the sucker that did it.

And that’s the week that was.

![Brad Slavin](https://media.mailhop.org/dmarcreport/images/team/brad-slavin.jpg) 

Brad Slavin 

General Manager

General Manager at DuoCircle. Product strategy and commercial lead across the email security portfolio.

## Secure your email infrastructure

Protect, authenticate, and deliver. Contact our team to find the right solution.

[Contact Sales](/contact/) [Explore Products](/products/) 

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