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...

Restaurant menus worldwide have been replaced by QR codes stuck to the table during the COVID-19 pandemic.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...

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...

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic saw enterprises across the globe rapidly adopt remote working to support social distancing and comply with quarantine restrictions implemented by national governments. Amid this chaos, many cyber criminals created new phishing scams and other online threats, leading to many high profile data breaches. One of the most alarming trends that emerged this...

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas holidays fast approaching, cyber criminals are working round the clock to create new scams, such as the shipping notification scam , to phish for private information and commit identity fraud. As many employees will be shopping online during working hours, cyber security leaders need to educate employees on phishing threats and teach...

Security awareness training for financial services and bank employees must be a top priority. While financial services institutions have long been prime targets for cybercriminals, as most attacks are financially motivated, the shift to remote work business models and operations has heightened cyber security risk levels. Recent data reinforces why financial services CISOs and security leaders need...

Since December 2019, there has been a coordinated campaign of phishing attempts targeting Office 365 users. Cyber criminals have sent spoofed email, gathering the login credentials and payment details of Microsoft accounts in over 62 countries. According to one report, despite a 42% reduction in phishing attempts in 2019, scams like this Microsoft Office 365 campaign remain a significant threat to...

Social networking overlaps corporate and personal lives, and so should the mission to create a culture of security awareness. It’s true. There was little – if nothing – any Facebook user could have done to prevent their passwords from getting exposed earlier this spring. Just look at the facts of the case, said Theo Zafirakos, Chief Information Security Officer and Security Awareness Coach at...