Romania ranks third worldwide, according to the number of targets targeted by attacks through the Discord communication platform, with Bitdefender IT security specialists discovering multiple phishing campaigns and the spread of IT threats aimed at this platform.
The Discord communication platform under attack by cyber attacks
“The specialists in IT security from Bitdefender have revealed that the popular Discord communication platform is still being used frequently in multiple phishing campaigns and the spread of IT threats. More than 50,000 dangerous links have been identified by means of Chat Protection technology that allows the detection of computer threats and phishing attacks on the Android operating system, before they are accessed by users“, reveals Bitdefender's research, which analyzed over 35 million links distributed within the application, carried out between September 1, 2023 and March 1, 2024.
The use of the Discord platform as a vector for the distribution of computer threats has been a problem for several years, although a number of changes have been implemented to reduce these dangers. One of the measures consists in the fact that the links intended for the hosting of internal documents are valid for only 24 hours, experts say.
Bitdefender's main findings show that 39% of the dangerous links that were analyzed contained either cyber threats or phishing campaigns, with the United States ranking first in the number of targets targeted (16.2%), followed by France (8 .1%) and Romania (6.5%).
Also, one of the scams involves winning a subscription to Discord Nitro which offers users more functionality. Since some companies offer Nitro as prizes, this type of scams are very popular. Victims are redirected to a fake website and tricked into entering their credentials or financial information.
“Another common scam relies on connecting the Discord and Steam platforms to get Nitro for free. The objective of the attackers is to receive the access data of the users on Steam in order to blackmail them in order to recover them“, Bitdefender specialists warn.
They also came up with a series of recommendations for users.
“Be cautious when receiving unknown links, even if they come from familiar sources. Use security solutions that detect such dangerous links before they become a problem. Constantly update operating systems and applications to fix possible security vulnerabilities. Periodically review the privacy settings of your Discord account to limit who can send you messages or documents“, transmitted the IT security specialists from Bitdefender.
Bitdefender is a recognized leader in the field of IT security, offering superior solutions for prevention, detection and response to cyber security incidents. Bitdefender labs discover hundreds of new cyber threats every minute and validate 30 billion threat queries every day. Bitdefender technologies are licensed to over 150 of the world's best-known security brands. Founded in 2001, the Bitdefender company has clients in over 170 countries and offices on all continents.
