Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and the most recent evolution of phishing scams is proving particularly effective. Boasting a gruesome name, pig butchering is a cyber threat that reels in victims and steals thousands, sometimes millions of dollars.  Pig butchering has quickly become one of the most lucrative scams thanks to a mix of post...

Cyber criminals are constantly evolving their methods, but their biggest leverage for growth will always be exploiting the human factor. Software and physical measures against cyber attacks have become so advanced that tricking workers is the only remaining attack vector criminals can reliably use. According to Verizon’s 2023 Data Breach Report, 74% of...

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 an attractive and...

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, easily generated and cost...

Phishing has always been a prominent attack vector, skyrocketing as traditional hacks became more complicated. Even worse, hackers have begun perfecting their tactics to make them more reliable and damaging. One of the most dangerous variants is social engineering, and with the help of AI, it's now becoming increasingly sophisticated. Let's discuss how AI is changing social engineering's playbook...

This year is seeing more phishing attacks in more places, having more detrimental impacts. One security messaging provider noted a 61% increase in phishing attacks between April and October 2022 compared to the same period the previous year. Another report observed that when phishing attacks were successful in 2022, financial losses from those incidents increased by 76%. In another trend,...

Offices around the world have undergone a massive transformation in recent years. While a fully remote workforce remains offered by a minority of employers, the hybrid nature of workplaces is rapidly becoming the norm. A recent study by Cisco studied the cyber security challenges tied to a distributed workforce, and their cyber security readiness model created some troubling statistics. According...

All examples of social engineering take advantage of human nature, such as the willingness to trust others, to trick individuals into divulging sensitive information. Despite its prevalence, social engineering can be challenging to distill into a single formula. It’s one of the reasons 82% of data breaches involve the human element. Social engineering has become the backbone of many cyber threats,...

Employees come and go for a variety of reasons. If you’re lucky, they’ll be very cooperative with the offboarding process, but this isn’t always the case. And even if they are, you still have to take it with a grain of salt. Some say that calm and cooperative offboarding is often the most dangerous because people aren’t as diligent when the situation seems lax. If these moments have any...

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.

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...

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...

Phishing threats are everywhere, and if your employees don’t know how to spot them, you’re putting your information at risk. Knowing how to build a successful phishing simulation is vital for identifying how well employees can spot the latest threats and ensuring they know how to spot them independently. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to offer adequate security awareness training, with...

Actionable security awareness tips on how employees can prevent insider threats  A misplaced USB drive with confidential data. An opportunistic employee sharing confidential information with a competitor. An employee who accidentally clicks a phishing email. These are all examples of insider threats to your organization. Insider threats unfortunately are not simply the stuff of movies and crime...

Less than a week ago, Twitter fell victim to a monumental security breach that saw hackers successfully orchestrate a social engineering attack and take over high-profile Twitter user accounts, including world-renowned companies like Apple and business magnates like Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The cybercriminals used that access to launch a bitcoin scam that generated over $120,000. The attack is...

(7 min read) Using online security awareness training to lower your click rate Recognizing a potential phishing email is the first step in avoiding falling victim to a cyber attack. The next and most important step is knowing what to do with this email. Ideally, you want your employees to report the phishing email to you and then delete the message. However, curiosity is extremely powerful....

You can have the most powerful, cutting-edge security technology in the world, but if a user clicks on the link in a malicious email, lets a stranger tailgate into your building or uses 1234 as their login password, they unwittingly open your organization up to a cyber security breach. The fact is that the human risk factor remains your greatest point of vulnerability when it comes to cyber...