Hackers turn Brazil’s job crisis into lucrative phishing attacks

“While people cry, I sell tissues.” The phrase, made popular by Brazilian ad maker Nizan Guanaes, is about how crises can turn into opportunities for those ready to seize them. It takes a dark turn, however, when we see how hackers have used Brazil’s unemployment crisis as a way to lure easy victims into phishing scams.

A phishing attack is when a hacker poses as a legitimate institution, luring their victim into willfully giving up sensitive information—such as personal data, passwords, etc. They usually bait users into clicking on malicious links through promises of prizes or easy cash. In Brazil, fake job offers have become the most common bait.

A study by Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab shows that Brazil is the country with most phishing scams in the world. As most people go online for their job hunting (the country is LinkedIn’s third-largest...