CyberheistNews Vol 2, #49
Editor's Corner
[caption id="attachment_1367" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Stu"]
[/caption]Scam Of The Week: "You Accessed Illegal Content"
There is a significant uptick in a ransomware attack that declares
a law enforcement agency has determined that a computer with the
victim's IP address has accessed child pornography and other illegal
content.
Moreover, this scam uses the good name of the Internet Crime Complaint
Center (IC3) to lure the victim to a drive-by download website, which
in turn installs the ransomware on the victim's computer, and tries
to extort money.
As you well know, cyber criminals use social engineering to make people
click on links to 'prevent a negative consequence'. To trick users to
click this latest version of the malware claims that the victim's computer
activity is being recorded using audio, video, and other devices.
We strongly recommend you warn your users about this one, as they can
be hit both in the office and at the house. Download and send it this
PDF all employees. It's a free service from KnowBe4 and lists the 22
Social Engineering Red Flags that they need to watch out for:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/knowbe4.cdn/SocialEngineeringRedFlags.pdf
$345,000 Cyberheist Settles After Three Year Dispute
Patco Consulting was one of the first companies to seek protection via
the courts after more than half a million dollars was stolen out of their
bank via an account takeover by eastern European cyber criminals. It has
finally settled and the bank is paying back the still missing funds. It was
caused by an employee clicking on a phishing link, and has cost Patco an
incredible amount of lost time due to the initial lawsuit and the following
appeal. I have followed this story since it began, and I do not wish this
on my worst enemy. They finally got their lost money back, but you can
never pay back the thousands of hours of lost time, legal wrangling and
worries. And to think that all this could have been prevented with security
awareness training for their employees. Here is the story in ComputerWorld:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9234054/Construction_company_bank_settle_dispute_over_345_000_cyber_heist?
Quotes of the Week
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." Mulla Nasrudin
"If you can do something about a situation, why worry? And if you can't
do something about a situation, why worry?" Dali Lama
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Stop Phishing Security Breaches
Are you aware that many of the email addresses of your organization are exposed on the Internet and easy to find for cybercriminals?
With these addresses they can launch (spear-) phishing attacks on your organization. This type of attack is very hard to defend against,
unless your users are highly security awareness trained.
IT Security specialists call it your phishing attack surface. The more of your email addresses that are floating out there,
the bigger your attack footprint is, and the higher the risk is. Its often a surprise how many addresses are actually out there.
Find out now which of your email addresses are exposed. The Email Exposure Check (EEC) is a one-time free service. KnowBe4 customers with a Gold package get an EEC sent to them regularly so they can address the issues that are found. An example would be the email address and password of one of your users on a crime site. Fill out the form and we will email you back with the list of exposed addresses. The number is usually higher than you think.
Sign Up For Your Free Email Exposure Check Now:
http://www.knowbe4.com/email-exposure-check/
Spear Phishing Remains Preferred Point of Entry in Attacks
Excellent post in the Kaspersky blog. "Nine times out of 10, attackers
walk into an organization right through the front door of its Exchange
Server, crafting convincing email messages purportedly from a trusted
source that either trick the victim into opening an infected attachment
or visiting a website where credentials are stolen, or malware is
surreptitiously installed on the visitors machine. In any event, the
first wave of the targeted attack kicks off from a lowly email." More:
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/spear-phishing-remains-preferred-point-entry-targeted-persistent-attacks-113012
Social Engineering Defense Contractors on LinkedIn and Facebook
Jordan Harbinger, expert in interpersonal dynamics and social engineering,
gives a great keynote at DerbyCon event, highlighting the methods it
takes to elicit confidential information from people with top secret
level security clearance. There are some very important lessons to
be learned here, because he is using the pretext of being a recruiter
and we all deal with these people now and then. Moreover, the article is a riot. Warmly recommended:
http://privacy-pc.com/articles/social-engineering-defense-contractors-on-linkedin-and-facebook.html
Amazing To See A Four-year-old Exploit Increase
Antone Gonsalves at CSO reported that "Antivirus vendors are warning
customers of a spreading malware that can infect computers through a
well-known bug in the Windows AutoRun software used to automatically
launch programs on a DVD or USB device.
The significant increase in infection is curious because Windows 7 and
Windows 8 PCs will not launch autorun.inf files, and Microsoft has
released two patches for older systems. Therefore, security experts
believe infections are happening through a combination of unpatched
computers, shared folders and files and social media.
Someone inserting a USB drive or memory stick carrying the malware can
infect unpatched PCs. On other systems, an infection can occur once the
malware travels to a network share and someone clicks on an infected
file or folder. Trend Micro reported that malware was also spreading
on Facebook.
Other vendors tracking the malware include McAfee, Symantec and Sophos.
While it is interesting that cybercriminals are still exploiting a
four-year-old AutoRun bug, Sophos says most corporate PCs are being
infected through network sharing.
Clicking the malware on Facebook would certainly open a quick path to a
shared folder on a corporate network, said Chester Wisniewski, a senior
security adviser for Sophos. More:
http://www.csoonline.com/article/722724/security-firms-warn-of-spreading-windows-autorun-malware?
Cyberheist 'FAVE' LINKS:
* This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff.
Here is your 5-minute Virtual Vacation: beautiful footage of Alaska in
areas that have never been rafted before:
http://www.flixxy.com/alaska-is-beautiful.htm
Light Emitting Dudes takes a team of freerunners, geared up from head to toe
with LED lights, and sets them loose on the streets of Bangkok at night:
http://www.flixxy.com/light-emitting-dudes-led-freerunning.htm
Anamorphic illusions trick your mind into seeing a 3D object that is actually
flat as paper. Wow this is a cool one:
http://www.flixxy.com/amazing-anamorphic-illusions-flat-paper-looks-3d.htm
A very athletic bunch of boys and gals got together and filmed some very
cool dance lifts!
http://www.flixxy.com/acrobatic-dance-compilation.htm
Cheetahs are the fastest runners on the planet. National Geographic documented
these amazing cats in a way thats never been done before:
http://www.flixxy.com/the-worlds-fastest-runner-in-slow-motion?utm_source=4
Rolling HyTAQ robot avoids obstacles by taking to the air:
http://youtu.be/KbtkpYIbuCw
The Russian Aerobatic Team performs at the air show celebrating "100 Years of
the Russian Air Force":
http://www.flixxy.com/the-russian-aerobatic-team.htm
French comedy musical group Zic Zazou plays "Love Is A Rebellious Bird" from
the opera Carmen on unusual instruments:
http://www.flixxy.com/french-garage-band-plays-carmen.htm
Classic Holiday Video: The coolest video of dogs decorating a Christmas tree:
http://www.flixxy.com/dogs-christmas-tree-decoration.htm
