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Sophos Uncovers Top 7 Ways Cyberscammers, Malware Operators Abuse Google Forms
Sophos, a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity, has published research, “Phishing and Malware Actors Abuse Google Forms for Credentials, Data Exfiltration,” describing how cyberattackers – from entry-level scammers to advanced adversaries – abuse Google Forms to implement a wide range of attacks, targeting both organizations and individuals.
Sean Gallagher, senior threat researcher at Sophos, “The extent to which cyberattackers abuse Google Forms came to light while we were researching how malware abuses encryption to conceal its activities and communications.
“Google Forms offer cyberattackers an attractive proposition: the forms are easy to implement and trusted by both organizations and consumers; the traffic to and from the service is secured with Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption so it can’t be easily inspected by defenders; and the whole set up essentially provides a free attack infrastructure.
“Our analysis shows that while most abuse of Google Forms by cyberattackers remains firmly in the low-skill phishing and fraud spam space, there are increasing signs that adversaries are taking advantage of the platform for more sophisticated attacks.
“Sophos’ examples of this include attackers using Google Forms to exfiltrate data and for malware command-and-control.”
Below are the seven ways that Sophos researchers have identified cyberscammers and malware operators abusing Google Forms:
Phishing: Despite the fact that Google warns users on every page of a form not to enter password details, Sophos found several examples where attackers tried to convince potential victims to enter their credentials into a Google Form laid out to resemble a login page. These forms were often tied to malicious spam campaigns.
Malicious spam campaigns: One of the largest sources of Google Forms links in spam were “unsubscribe” links in scam-related marketing emails. Sophos has intercepted a number of spam-based phising campaigns that targeted Microsoft online accounts, including Office365. The spam claimed that recipients’ email accounts were about to be shut down if they were not immediately verified, and offered a link to a Google Form that asked the user to enter their Microsoft credentials. These Google Forms pages were decorated with Microsoft graphics but, still, clearly a Google Form.
Payment card data theft: Entry-level scammers use Google Forms’ ready-made design templates to attempt to steal payment data through faked “secure” e-commerce pages.
Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs), such as adware: The researchers discovered a number of PUAs targeting Windows users. These apps use Google Forms pages surreptitiously, with the web requests collected and submitted to forms automatically without any need for user interaction.
Fake user interfaces for malicious Android apps: Sophos found some malicious Android applications that made use of Google Forms to capture data without having to code a back-end website. Most of these were adware or PUAs. For instance, the researchers found “SnapTube,” a video app that generates revenue for the developer through web advertising fraud and which includes a Google Forms page for user feedback.
Data removal: The researchers uncovered a number of more sophisticated threats abusing Google Forms. This included malicious Windows applications that used web requests to Google Forms pages to ‘push’ stolen data from computers to a Google spreadheet via Google Forms.
Part of the wider malicious cyberattack infrastructure: Sophos telemetry has detected a number of PowerShell scripts interacting with Google Forms. We were able to prototype how PowerShell scripts could be used to scrape Windows profiling data from a computer and submit it to a Google Forms form automatically.
“Google frequently shuts down accounts associated with a mass abuse of applications, including Google Forms,” said Gallagher. “However, the kind of low-volume, targeted use of Forms by some malware could stay under the radar. Business defenders need to be alert to this threat and apply caution whenever they see links to Google Forms, or any other legitimate services trying to obtain credentials, and they should not inherently trust TLS traffic to ‘known good’ domains such as docs.google.com.”
Sophos products, including Intercept X for endpoints, defend against most malicious spam that carry forms-based phishing campaigns and detect the behaviors of system information collection discussed in the new research.
Sophos also advises consumers to install a security solution, such as Sophos Home, on the devices that they and their families use for online communications and gaming to protect everyone from malware and cyberthreats.
MoMo PSB, MTN Nigeria’s fintech powerhouse, sealed a game-changing pact with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on February 3 at its Victoria Island headquarters, unleashing digital and financial tools to turbocharge SMEs nationwide for seamless operations, revenue surges, and sustainable scaling.
MoMo PSB, SMEDAN
The partnership arms SMEDAN-registered merchants with MoMo’s multi-channel arsenal—apps, POS, USSD, partner portals, and custom platforms—to hoover payments across streams, automate payrolls, juggle tills and shop chains, and boss core business metrics from one slick dashboard.
This powerhouse duo targets Nigeria’s SME engine room, where digital chokepoints throttle growth, injecting MTN’s MoMo muscle to slash friction and unlock efficiencies for mama-put hustles to mid-tier factories alike.
Industry watchers hail the MoU as a masterstroke in President Tinubu’s economic revival playbook, fusing government SME scaffolding with private-sector fintech firepower to birth a new breed of digitally dominant entrepreneurs primed for AfCFTA conquests.
MTN Foundation and SAIL Innovation Lab have roared into Phase Two of their blockbuster Teachers Fellowship Programme, onboarding 5,000 elite educators from Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT since January 13 to turbocharge public schools with cutting-edge digital wizardry and global teaching firepower.
MTN
This mobile-first crusade, laser-focused on arming primary and secondary school titans for the digital economy showdown, kicks off with a grueling four-week virtual bootcamp via WhatsApp and Google Classroom—slashing travel barriers for even the remotest rural warriors.
Organisers promise peer-to-peer fireworks and real-time gut-checks, capping Stage One with a virtual gala saluting milestones before culling the pack to a fierce “Top 500” via engagement, assessments, and hustle for Phase Two’s inquiry-based mastery and deep-dive digital metamorphosis.
MTN Foundation’s Executive Director Odunayo Sanya lit the fuse: “Teachers are the backbone of our education system. By empowering them with digital competencies and innovative teaching methods, we are directly investing in the future of our youth.
This Fellowship Programme is designed to ensure that our educators are not just keeping pace with global best practices but are actively shaping the next generation of innovators and leaders.”
Nigeria’s heftiest private teacher uprising scales from last year’s triumphs, minting classroom commandos as state ambassadors to ignite inquiry-driven, tech-fueled learning revolutions coast-to-coast.
Onafriq Nigeria Payments Ltd, a CBN licenced payment service provider, partners with The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) to pilot the continent’s first wallet-based outbound payments from Nigeria to Ghana – fully in Naira and instant, without relying on hard currency conversion, in partnership with Banks and Mobile Money Operators.
The pilot service, approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), enables cross-border intra-Africa payments for individuals, merchants, and traders.
In particular, the service will benefit SMEs, the real engine of intra-African trade; all now have access to a faster, cheaper way to reach customers and suppliers across the border.
By reducing barriers to cross-border trade, the new service will allow these businesses to grow their addressable markets and activity. From the 1st of December, this service will be fully operational for a 6-month period.
Through the partnership with PAPSS, Onafriq is supporting the operationalization of the AfCFTA (Africa Continental Free Trade Area) mandate.
The mandate itself is driving tariff-free trade for the 54 member states of AfCFTA. Within the partnership itself, Onafriq provides the mobile money rails, with an ecosystem consisting of over 1 billion mobile wallets.
Meanwhile, PAPSS brings a network of over 160 commercial banks, representing an ecosystem of more than 400 million bank accounts across its 19 African countries of operation.
The two partners are essentially seamlessly connecting two worlds: mobile money and banking. As a consequence, intra-African trade transactions will take place more easily and opportunities will be created.
Currently, Africa is made up of bank and mobile-led markets, with siloes often inhibiting transactions between these economies. However, this partnership will remove these boundaries. With over one billion mobile wallets and 500 million bank wallets across Africa, this partnership will allow for cross-border collaboration at scale.
This partnership builds on Onafriq and PAPSS’ existing partnership for payments into Ghana, announced earlier this year.
Mxolisi Msutwana, Managing Director Anglophone West Africa said, “Our work with PAPSS shows what collaboration at scale can unlock—seamless, secure connections between banking systems and mobile money ecosystems.
“This is how we open bi-directional trade corridors, reduce costs for businesses, and give African enterprises the rails they need to trade with confidence in their own currencies. The vision is continental, but it starts with practical steps like this one.”
Ositadimma Ugwu, Chief Information Officer, PAPSS, added “Too often, African businesses and individuals see borders as roadblocks instead of opportunities. With this step, we’re challenging that mindset, giving Nigerians the ability to send value next door with the same ease as sending a text message.
“Our vision is simple: make Africa’s borders invisible to payments. This pilot makes that a reality, moving us closer to a continent where payments don’t pause at the border.”
This new Nigeria-to-Ghana outbound capability builds on the successful Ghana-to-Nigeria instant payments corridor launched earlier this year – further proof that Africa’s payments future is local, instant, and inclusive.
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