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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Whether deployed as a cloud service or on-premises, email security—and especially email security gateways—is of growing importance to organizations of all sizes, particularly given the upheavals to the working world over the last several years. It is estimated that in the post-pandemic world, one quarter of the workforce will choose to permanently work remote. In some sectors,...

Restaurant menus worldwide have been replaced by QR codes stuck to the table during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical menus were judged too difficult to clean and could act as infection vectors. Since everyone has a smartphone nowadays, QR codes were attractive alternatives instead of asking clients to type in the restaurant’s URL on their phones. Before, QR codes were mainly...

Trap phishing is one of the most valuable intelligence-gathering tools cyber criminals have at their disposal. Hackers routinely send out emails, phone calls, and messages to trick the recipients into handing over personal information, clicking on a web link,or downloading a malicious attachment and infecting their device. These trap phishing attacks, more commonly referred to...

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...

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...