It’s upsetting when bad actors turn the good things in life against us. We use social media daily to celebrate, learn, keep in touch, fall in love, and buy things that satisfy our needs and wants. Unfortunately, hackers exploit that information to execute phishing attacks. Social media platforms did not only experience more attacks in 2022, but it’s also become the fastest-growing attack surface....

March is Fraud Prevention Month, and Terranova Security wants to take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of raising awareness on information security best practices. Let’s stop online fraud in its tracks. As security professionals focused on Information Security Awareness (ISA), much of what we do is fraud prevention. Our aims and actions have a direct link to Fraud Prevention Month,...

Everyone wants to look good in front of their boss. Which is exactly why an urgent email from the CEO of your company is guaranteed to catch your attention. You’re more likely to act on the request immediately without questioning the details. But what if that email didn’t come from your boss? All it takes is one savvy email that encourages an employee to act on behalf of their team leader. For...

The education sector experienced a "record-breaking" year of cyber attacks in 2020. In case you'd been sleeping under a rock, there was a global pandemic that drove up the need for virtual setups. According to Microsoft, education is globally the sector most vulnerable to threats like malware, accounting for more than 6.8 million (over 63%) of total reported encounters in early 2022. It's not...

Hackers are targeting hundreds of thousands of Google users with fake Google Drive notifications and emails to try and trick them into visiting malicious websites.

Everyone wants to impress their boss, which is exactly what scammers rely on nowadays to carry out sophisticated phishing attacks called CEO fraud. Examples of CEO fraud are becoming increasingly common, with attackers regularly sending out phishing emails to an organization's employees and impersonating the top executive. This often comes with a demand at the end of the day that must be...

As much as we can say that cyber security measures are advancing, we can say the same about cyber criminals and their strategies. In 2022, ransomware attacks occurred every 11 seconds on average, at a global annual cost to businesses and governments of $20 billion US. Costs are rising in part due to the growing ransoms demanded from victims. While estimates of the average ransomware payout in...

KrebsOnSecurity blog recently reported on a popular, low-cost Common Access Card (CAC) reader available on Amazon that came with drivers infected by malware. A compromised smart ID card reader can bring severe consequences to both government and private organizations. It gives hackers an easy backdoor means of infiltrating networks and systems, which can leave sensitive information vulnerable...

This financial sector’s reliance on computer systems and network has made it an attractive target for cyber attacks, now the biggest risk to the UK financial system. In its latest Financial Stability Report, the Bank of England (BoE) agrees that cyber threats may be prevalent in 2023. The BoE said that it is working to strengthen defenses against cyber attacks. The report identified three...

The way we think about data protection is changing. Cyber culture is emerging as the new norm, and organizations must adapt their strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Data protection has traditionally focused on preventing breaches and protecting sensitive information. However, cyber culture goes beyond this by encompassing all aspects of online life. It includes everything from how we interact...

If you’re a company that uses email scanning technology as the first line of cyber defense, you should know about a recent slate of malicious Word document-based attacks. These attacks are designed to deliver malware and ransomware to targeted systems. Security researchers at Cisco Talos recently identified an attack where Word document files attached to emails were used to deliver Cobalt Strike...

There is a sharp rise in cyber attacks targeting businesses and organizations across Australia. The nature of these attacks ranges from ransomware and phishing scams to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, with some estimates suggesting that the number of cyber incidents could be as high as one million per year. The financial cost of these cyber attacks is immense, with businesses and...

Did you know that gift card scams are among the most popular cyber threats? The same things that make gift cards popular with consumers—convenience and ease of use—also make them attractive to scammers as a vehicle for fraud. Gift cards, also known as gift certificates or vouchers, have topped the list of reported fraud payment methods every year since 2018, according to the Federal Trade...

During the annual eCommerce bonanza known as Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, shopping websites will be swarming with people who are mostly unaware of cyber threats that can leave personal data vulnerable. In 2021, Europe, Canada, and the United States saw a 50% spike in transactions during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday window from the previous week. With the imminent spike in online...

The secret of any good security awareness training program is teaching your employees how to mitigate the threats they’re most likely to encounter in the workplace. To do this, you need to choose your security awareness training topics carefully. No two organizations have the same infrastructure, vulnerabilities, or user access policies to sensitive data, so there’s no one-size-fits-all training...

None of the innovations seen in workplaces over the years posed challenges as significant as remote work. Even before hybrid workforces were the norm, many companies worldwide found themselves consolidated in large multinationals with employees all over the globe. The leading problem companies face, no matter the industry, is giving all their employees the same working experience, regardless of...

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 high-pressure...

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 than looking at the...

Malware is perhaps the most widely known out of all IT security threats. Since 1986, malware has become a significant concern for enterprise users, with recent examples including the Colonial Pipeline attack, Kaseya ransomware attack, and the SolarWinds Dark Halo breach. However, these attacks are just the tip of the iceberg, with many businesses falling victim to malware and ransomware attacks...