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...

Phishing attacks work because people don’t know what phishing looks like. These examples of phishing emails emphasize how easy it is to be tricked.

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 completed...

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 2020...

Not only are they burning through cash as they pivot toward the metaverse, but their struggles with data privacy are an ongoing issue. In many ways, Facebook/Meta’s data privacy troubles began in 2018, with revelations that a data-marketing firm had illegally collected the personal details of more than 80 million Facebook users. However, despite promises of improvements and changes in corporate...

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...

On November 1st, 2022, Dropbox became the victim of a cyber attack where source code repositories, as well as names and emails of their employees, were unauthorizedly accessed. It is not yet clear how the unauthorized access took place, but Dropbox has said that they are investigating the matter. The company is urging all users to change their passwords as a precautionary measure. This breach...

On September 15, the Hive ransomware group claimed to have launched an attack against Bell Technology Solutions on August 20, 2022. The compromised information contained approximately 1.9 million active email addresses, 1,700 names, and active phone numbers. Bell Technology Solutions is a subsidiary of Bell Canada, a leading communications company and communications provider for over 140 years...

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 used for advertising...

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 as phishing scams...

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...

In early July, IT solutions provider and remote management solution provider Kaseya announced that it had fallen victim to a supply chain ransomware attack. During the attack, hackers leveraged a vulnerability in Kaseya’s VSA platform to encrypt the data of hundreds of downstream MSPs and their clients. The Kaseya ransomware outbreak is one of the latest high-profile ransomware attacks targeting...

At the start of April, hackers leaked the data of 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries in an online hacking forum. The leaked data included the private information of Facebook users like full names, phone numbers, email addresses, locations, Facebook IDs, and biographical data. While hackers obtained the information in 2019, there are serious concerns over how cyber criminals could use...

During the last week of January 2021, cyber security provider TrendMicro shared a blog post highlighting an Office-365 phishing campaign that criminals have targeted executives within manufacturing, tech, real estate, government, and finance since May 2020. As part of the scam, fraudsters sent the victims fake emails with links to a phishing site, where they harvested their credentials to sell...

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 organizations daily...

Discover security awareness trends and best practices for 2021 Your employees are your first line of defense against cyber security attacks. The strength of your security awareness program depends on every employee in your organization. As part of your organizational goals and plans for 2021, you need to prioritize building a cyber secure and aware culture. This requires an ongoing commitment from...