The FBI Denver field office has issued a warning about a rising scam involving free online document converter tools. I thought it best to take the opportunity to reflect upon what this actually means and who is most at risk.
These types of online tools were created as an online efficiency; the ability to open a website to extract an audio clip from a video, download a YouTube video, or convert a PDF into a Word document as you don’t pay for Adobe Acrobat quickly caught on in the mid 2000’s.
While these tools perform the advertised tasks, they traditionally made money from you by direct advertising or requiring you to provide basic information (such as an email or phone number) to use the platform and was generally harmless.
Fast forward to 2025, and a large majority of these tools are now maliciously run, injecting hidden malware into the file you download, and scraping the file for personally identifiable information, including bank details, crypto information, emails, and passwords.
The main impact of this may not be immediately obvious, however, can present itself in longer term exposure to spam and future attacks whereby you are ‘on the list’ of the scammers and are therefore targeted more.
This is especially important for those of us who work in small to mid size firms, where teams can sometimes take shortcuts (or simply don’t have the right tools) to complete tasks, find assets, or conduct market research.
In order to safeguard your team, it’s important to consider the following:
- Stay vigilant and be caution of free online tools, consider the risk before using them.
- Provide your team with the right tools for them to complete their tasks.
- Education and awareness are key to keeping your teams informed and taking proactive measures.
- Update security software to ensure that antivirus is up to date to proactively scan attachments before opening.
- Report incidents to your IT team or vendor.
Cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue—it’s a business continuity issue. Stay safe, stay vigilant!
#Cybersecurity #SmallBusiness #FinancialSecurity #OnlineSafety #FBIWarning