Social media platforms have become non-negotiables in our daily lives. We always find ourselves online at our favorite social media sites to connect with loved ones, share our thoughts, and discover interesting content. While social media has become central to our routines, its vast reach and anonymity provide certain risks—they’ve become a breeding...

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...

More than half of the world population (54%) spends an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes on social media daily. Users’ likes, opinions, geotags, photo uploads, and friend connections are considered personal data. What social media companies do with that information is vitally important. However, users often give those platforms enormous control over their data when they sign user agreements. ...

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,...

Detectives look for footprints and fingerprints because they’re instant proof of where someone’s been, what they touched, and where they’re headed. The concept holds online, too. Your digital footprint is a map of where you (and your devices) have been, what you do online, how you behave, and where you’re probably headed next in the cyber sphere. In this article, we explain what digital...

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...

Social media has completely redefined our lives. From how we communicate to the type of information we broadcast, people worldwide have used these platforms to make new friends, share information, start and promote businesses, and so much more. These platforms have become amazingly convenient and powerful to the point where they have become a centerpiece of most people’s lives. The ubiquity of...

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,...

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,...

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.

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...