Scammers use Chipotle Mailgun account for phishing attacks, Google and Facebook make vaccines mandatory for employees, and are those who get news from Facebook less likely to get the vaccine?
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It’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, July 30, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Earlier this month hackers compromised the Mailgun account owned by Mexican restaurant Chipotle, using it to send out phishing emails with malicious links. According to phish-fighting firm INKY, 121 phishing emails originated from the restaurant’s Mailgun account. Some of the emails included fake voicemail notifications with malware attached. Emails were designed to look like messages from Microsoft and United Services Automobile Association (USAA). These emails led victims to sign-in pages designed to mimic those companies. At the moment INKY is not aware of where the attacks originated from since Mailgun servers make it difficult to track the message location.
Google and Facebook are the first big tech companies to make vaccines mandatory for their employees when they return to the office. Google’s CEO said in an email to his staff that the policy would be implemented in U.S. campuses within the next few weeks with other areas following later. Facebook made a similar call requiring that all employees coming to work at U.S. campuses be vaccinated. These mandates come as the Delta variant causes COVID-19 cases to surge in the U.S. Google has also pushed back office re-opening plans amid case increases. Apple made a similar announcement recently, delaying its return to the office to late fall.
And lastly, a recent study revealed that people who get their news from Facebook are less likely to be vaccinated. According to The Washington Post, this stat is based on those who solely use Facebook to seek out news, as opposed to entertainment purposes. The study showed that over a period of 24 hours, 31 percent of survey respondents found COVID-19 related news on Facebook. The percentage was comparable to actual news sources like CNN. 61 per cent of respondents who used Facebook for news said they would not get vaccinated. When it comes to trusting the media, only 37 per cent of people who got coronavirus news only from Facebook report trusting the news media “some” or “a lot.” Earlier this month President Joe Biden blamed Facebook for spreading misinformation about vaccines saying they were responsible for the low vaccination rates in certain areas.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Friday at 3 pm. Thanks for listening, I’m Tom Li.