Valentine’s Day isn’t just a day for romance. It’s a time of year when cyber criminals and scammers launch attacks such as phishing, vishing, smishing, and social engineering. Australia has begun issuing warnings to singles, informing them of the “pig butchering” or “romance baiting” scam that’s prominent on Valentine’s Day. It starts with the attacker assuming the identity of...

QR codes have come a long way since being invented in 1994 by a subsidiary of Toyota. Initially introduced to address some limitations of barcodes during the car manufacturing process, QR codes have since become staples in people’s day-to-day lives. The introduction of high-powered cameras to most modern smartphones is what allowed these codes to gain new uses. QR codes,...

“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”     Cartoon by Peter Steiner There’s a reason this cartoon gained popularity in 1993 and has now become an iconic representation of how the internet works. The internet provides a way for people to hide their real identities, which can unfortunately lead to dishonest activities. Nowadays, scammers take advantage of this to...

Cellphones have seen one of the most dramatic technological growths of any hardware in recent history. From simple portable phones a few decades ago, they’ve become fully-fledged computers with their own OS and applications used daily by most people worldwide. Smartphones have become such a fixture of life, and hackers and scammers have been working to exploit these devices...

When it comes to cyber crime, hackers like to locate the most high-value targets, whether it’s a piece of infrastructure or an individual with access to privileged information, all while expending the least effort possible. In most examples of spear phishing attacks, a criminal will send out targeted attacks via email to multiple users. In these emails, the attacker will use...

Spoofing refers to an attack where hackers use various ways to disguise their identity so that their victims think they are talking to their coworker, boss, or business. The methods used to achieve this are the typical phishing tropes such as fake websites, links, and social engineering. When spoofing is involved, it’s often more helpful to focus on detecting the facade rather...

Personal voice assistants have proven to be a great technological innovation that improves lives daily. With 4.2 billion of these devices in use in 2020, they are no longer just a novelty, and, with workers staying home for the foreseeable future, voice assistants could pose a sizeable security risk. Voice assistants are mostly known as standalone speakers that people talk to...

Spear phishing occurs when cyber criminals deploy targeted attacks against individuals and businesses alike via email. Using savvy tactics, hackers collect sensitive data about specific parties to construct messages that sound familiar and trustworthy. As its name implies, spear phishing falls under the larger umbrella category of phishing attacks that victimize end users and...

(7 min read) Hint: It has everything to do with effective mobile learning. The past decade’s explosion of smartphone and tablet usage has magnified the importance of well-designed mobile responsive content as a vital part of any training program. Recent studies echo clear mobile learning preference statistics, including how: 70% of learners feel more motivated when training...

Know how to identify and prevent a spoofing attack Spoofing attacks are the ultimate form of cybercriminal trickery and deception. Cybercriminals disguise themselves and rely on trust to steal confidential information, install ransomware, and commit other cybercrimes. Spoofing comes down to trust. Cybercriminals hide behind trusted people, domains, URLs, and the technical...