AntiMalwareAugust 3, 2026🇷🇺Translated from Russian

Russian Interior Ministry Advises Citizens Against Posting Personal Dossiers on Social Media

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has called on citizens to share fewer details about themselves and their relatives on social networks. Information such as places of study and employment, home addresses, and family details should be kept out of public profiles.

As reported by RIA Novosti citing official ministry materials, a comprehensive digital self-portrait can attract the interest of recruiters and fraudsters. Collected data enables them to analyze potential targets, locate weak points, and develop tailored interaction scripts designed to exploit trust.

The MVD further advises against conducting detailed public discussions of personal opinions and against responding to personal questions from unknown individuals. Before any conversation, users should verify the ownership of the profile in question. If a contact raises suspicions, the recommendation is to add the account to a blacklist and simultaneously file a complaint with the platform moderators.

This is not the first warning issued by the ministry on the topic. In October 2025 the MVD reminded the public that published personal data can become a valuable resource for fraudsters. Russians were urged not to publish full names, dates of birth, or any information that could be used to compile additional details about an individual.

Social networks have long ceased to function merely as collections of vacation photographs. For an attacker they represent a ready-made questionnaire revealing where a person lives, works, studies, whom they communicate with, and what they trust. The guiding principle remains straightforward: the less strangers know about a person’s life, the more difficult it becomes to construct a personalized scenario of deception or recruitment.

Related articles

HabrFraud & Social Engineering

The Human Factor in Phishing: Why Employees Wait Nine Days to Report Credential Theft

A detailed case analysis reveals how an employee clicked a phishing link, entered credentials, and realized the mistake within a minute, yet security teams only discovered the incident nine days later through an automated rule rather than a human report. The delay stemmed from immediate shame and motivated reasoning that allowed the victim to convince themselves no further action was needed, including the false belief that changing the password resolved the issue. This nine-day window left attacker sessions active, permitted potential mailbox forwarding rules to exfiltrate data, and risked rotating logs that erased forensic evidence. The article examines how corporate cultures that frame incidents as blameworthy events actively discourage reporting and turn minor phishing successes into prolonged investigations involving third parties. Recommendations include creating a no-blame reporting policy with clear boundaries, implementing one-click in-client reporting buttons, and shifting metrics from click rates to reporting speed and volume. The analysis stresses that even strong technical detection cannot fully replace rapid human signals when cultural barriers remain unaddressed.

AntiMalwareFraud & Social Engineering

Fake GTA and Ghost Casino Apps Flood Google Play Early Access with Scam Promises

Unscrupulous developers are exploiting Google Play's Early Access program to distribute applications that make false promises of earnings through fake games and casino experiences. These apps lack public ratings and reviews, preventing disappointed users from warning others before installation. Bitdefender reports that the scheme is heavily promoted via advertisements on TikTok, Facebook, and other social networks, often featuring deepfakes of actors, athletes, and celebrities to build credibility. Users are lured with offers of PayPal payments, cryptocurrency, gift cards, and casino jackpots, but the apps deliberately slow progress near withdrawal thresholds. After installation, the software displays generous virtual winnings that never translate into real payouts. The campaign relies on aggressive advertising and misleading interfaces to maximize installations before users realize the fraud.

AntiMalwareFraud & Social Engineering

BI.ZONE Mail Security 3.0 Enhances Detection of Password-Protected Archives and Spam Variants

BI.ZONE has released Mail Security 3.0, introducing new mechanisms to detect email threats and improved tools for administrators. The updated system now assigns additional risk scores to password-protected archives when their contents cannot be unpacked, without automatically classifying the archive itself as malicious. It also compares message texts to identify near-identical emails used in spam campaigns where attackers slightly alter wording to evade filters. Administrators can now incorporate SPF and DKIM verification results into delivery rules to better distinguish legitimate senders from impersonators. According to BI.ZONE statistics, phishing accounted for 90 percent of illegitimate email traffic in the first half of 2026. Additional protections include CAPTCHA challenges after repeated failed login attempts on administrative accounts. The release also adds bulk management of rules, improved logging with a side panel for message details, a new Events section, and Syslog export to external SIEM systems.

AntiMalwareFraud & Social Engineering

F6 and MAX Neutralize Over 2,550 External Phishing and Scam Resources in Two-Month Operation

F6 and the MAX messenger have jointly blocked more than 2,550 malicious external websites used for phishing, scams, and other forms of online fraud. The effort relied on the F6 Digital Risk Protection platform, which continuously scans for fake authentication pages and fraudulent resources targeting users. Monitoring took place during July and August 2026, after which experts from both organizations arranged for the sites to be taken down. The action focused exclusively on external resources and did not involve any malicious content hosted inside the MAX messenger itself. F6 Digital Risk Protection head Stanislav Goncharov noted that regular takedowns can reduce attacker activity over time, yet users must still verify website addresses manually before entering credentials or payment data.