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Social Engineering Blog

Latest social engineering news, analysis, tactics the bad guys are using and what you can do to defend your organization.

New Threat Group Already Evolves Delivery Tactics to Include Google Ads

Delivering an equally new Royal ransomware, this threat group monitored by Microsoft Security Threat Intelligence has already shown signs of impressive innovation to trick victims.
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Quiet Quitting Can Potentially Lead to Insider Security Risks

The phenomenon known as “quiet quitting,” in which employees become disengaged from their work while formally remaining in their jobs, can lead to serious security risks, according to Tim ...
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Merriam-Webster has announced "gaslighting" as the 2022 word of the year

Merriam-Webster has announced "gaslighting" as the 2022 word of the year. One definition of gaslighting is "to manipulate (someone) into believing that he or she is going insane or that ...
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There’s No Such Thing as a Free Yeti, Only Social Engineering Tactics

It’s easy to think of the typical online holiday scam as something that affects mostly individuals. Sad, maybe, and unfortunate, but not something that might seriously threaten a ...
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[Send This To Your Users] 5 Top Scams To Watch Out For This Holiday Season

Here is a 3-minute article that we suggest you copy/paste and send to all your users as part of your ongoing security culture campaign. "The holiday season is a time when people are ...
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New Instagram Support Phishing Attack Fakes “Unusual Logon” Experience Well Enough to Fool Victims

Long gone are the days of tacky landing pages that barely impersonate a brand; threat actors are improving their social engineering game well enough to make anyone believe it’s the real ...
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Over One-Third of Companies Who Pay the Ransom are Targeted for a Second Time

Despite the somewhat logical notion that once you’ve paid the ransom, the attack is over, new data shows that paying the ransom doesn’t help you anywhere near how much you think it does.
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Fangxiao Domain-Spoofing for Revenue

Researchers at Cyjax describe a large phishing campaign being run by a China-based financially motivated threat actor called “Fangxiao.” The threat actor has been active since at least ...
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[FREE Resource Kit] Stay Safe This Holiday Season with KnowBe4

It's the best time of the year! But also, it's the busiest time for cybercriminals. Since your users will be distracted with seasonal activities, cybercriminals will take advantage of the ...
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“Hired Hand” in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Uses Domain Spoofing

Sometimes a social engineering campaign has a clear geographical focus, often shaped by language, holidays, or current events. In this case, the scammers are taking opportunistic ...
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[HEADS UP] FBI Warns of Tech Support Scams That Impersonate Payment Portals for Fake Refunds

In the latest FBI warning, cybercriminals are now impersonating financial institutions' refund payment portals. This effort is to contain victims' personal information with legitimacy.
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Here Is What You Can Do To Inspect SMS URL Links Before Clicking

Phishing via Short Message Service (SMS) texts, what is known as smishing, is becoming increasingly common (some examples are shown below). There is probably not a person on Earth who ...
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New Business Email Compromise Gang Impersonates Lawyers

A criminal gang is launching business email compromise (BEC) attacks by posing as “real attorneys, law firms, and debt recovery services.” The attackers send legitimate-looking invoices ...
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Russian trolls and bots are back, targeting Tuesday’s U.S. midterms.

Steven Lee Myers at the NYT had the scoop on this typical Russian influence operation which really is social engineering at scale: "The user on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced ...
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Phishing Resistant MFA Does Not Mean Un-Phishable

Human societies have a bad habit of taking a specific, limited-in-scope fact and turning it into an overly broad generalization that gets incorrectly believed and perpetuated as if it ...
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[Scam of The Week] New Phishing Email Exploits Twitter’s Plan to Charge for Blue Checkmark

Michael Kan at PCMag had the scoop: A hacker is already circulating one phishing email, warning users they'll need to submit some personal information to keep the blue verified checkmark ...
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[Eye Opener] Work In IT? You Get Attacked Much More Than Other Employees

We received an interesting email from Elevate Security you need to be aware of. Their recent research showed: "Social engineering attacks are growing more sophisticated every day, ...
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New Credential Harvesting Scam Impersonates Google Translate to Trick Victims

In an interesting twist, this latest scam identified by security researchers at Avanan attempts to establish legitimacy by making the victim think the logon page is being translated.
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Three-Quarters of Ethical Hackers Can Collect and (Potentially) Exfiltrate Data in 10 Hours or Less

New insight from the SANS Institute surveying 300 ethical hackers sheds some light on how they perceive your security stance – and how easy it is for them to break in despite your efforts.
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Could 100% of Phishing Be Eliminated One Day?

Occasionally you will hear people or organizations claiming that they are on the verge of eliminating all social engineering from reaching end-users. Could it be true? Could it happen one ...
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