WATCH THE VIDEO HERE The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has issued a public alert warning Nigerians about a cybersecurity threat involving the use of Spotify to promote malicious activities. The agency in a public notice issued on Tuesday, revealed that threat actors are exploiting the popular music streaming platform to advertise game hacks, pirated software, and spam links that could expose users to cyber threats. According to NITDA, cybercriminals embed malicious promotions in playlist names and podcast descriptions on Spotify. NITDE explained that these promotions are used to advertise game hacks for popular video games such as Fortnite, GTA, Apex, and Roblox. Additionally, they promote pirated software (commonly referred to as “cracks”), spam links, and other malicious sites. This abuse leverages Spotify’s web player results to improve the search engine visibility of these harmful websites, putting unsuspecting users at risk of malware, scams, and other cyber threats. NITDA warned that the exploitation of Spotify could lead to: To mitigate the risks, NITDA advises users to adopt the following preventive measures: The Agency further advised Spotify users in Nigeria to remain vigilant and adhere to cybersecurity best practices to safeguard their personal information and devices. As more people go online, cybercriminals have continued to device various means to attack and steal from them through the various platforms the people go to. According to the Agency, the websites posing as OpenAI’s popular AI, ChatGPT are tricking users into downloading malicious files or software to their devices.
NITDA alerts Nigerians on cybersecurity risks linked to Spotify exploits
