Security Awareness Training Blog

Social Engineering Blog

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

An Influence or Wire Fraud?

A 22-year-old Instagram and YouTube influencer named Kayla Massa has been arrested after allegedly convincing her followers to assist her in a fraud scheme, Quartz reports. Prosecutors ...
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39 Percent of Organizations Were Victims of a Mobile Attack Despite Improved Security

Brand new data from Verizon shows businesses sacrificed when it comes to mobile security; a decision that caused compromises with impacts well-beyond just a simple breach.
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Why Minimizing Human Error is the Only Viable Defense Against Spear Phishing

Phishing attacks have become one of the business world's top cybersecurity concerns. These social engineering attacks have been rising over the years, with the most recent report from the ...
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Spamming Tools are a Commodity in the Criminal Underworld

Cheap and easy-to-use phishing kits and other social engineering tools are readily available for purchase on the black market, according to researchers at Digital Shadows. Criminals ...
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WSJ: "Losing $450,000 in Three Days: Hackers Trick Victims Into Big Wire Transfers"

Rachel Louise Ensign wrote a great story for the WSJ about CEO Fraud, also known by the FBI as Business Email Compromise. I'm quoting an extract and I strongly recommend sending a link to ...
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[EYE-OPENER] Dutch Minister Of Justice And Security: "Fighting Phishing Starts With Awareness"

"The fight against phishing starts with raising the awareness of internet users, stated Justice and Security Minister Grapperhaus. He responded to figures from Dutch banks showing that ...
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[Heads-up] Ransomware Criminals Hack An Accounting Company And Cause A Data Breach For Their Customers

Last December, a ransomware infection of Albany, New York-based accounting firm BST & Co. CPAs LLC exposed the confidential data of their customers, causing a data breach for one of ...
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Here Is A Real-life Bank Phone Scam Blocked By A Security Awareness Trained Employee

Brad Mathis at our partner Keller Schroeder sent me the following real-life story from Matt, a KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training client...
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Phishing URLs Increase 640% as Organizations (Finally!) Embrace Security Awareness Training

The latest data from security vendor Webroot shows how cybercriminals are changing their attack methods and targets – and how Security Awareness Training makes the difference.
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New Spear Phishing Campaign Targets 27 Famous Brands With Malicious SLK Files

A new spear phishing campaign is targeting twenty-seven companies around the world with malicious SLK (Symbolic Link) files, according to BleepingComputer. The attackers pose as a real ...
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A U.S. Natural Gas Operator Shuts Down For 2 Days After A Phishing Attack Infects It With Ransomware

Dan Goodin at Ars Technica reported something worrisome: "A US-based natural gas facility shut down operations for two days after sustaining a ransomware infection that prevented ...
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Cyberattacks in 2019 Cost over $3.5 Billion in Victim Losses with Business Email Compromise Taking in Half

The FBI’s annual year-in-review breaks down how 467,000 cyber attacks succeeded in taking consumers and businesses alike for billions of dollars.
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Seasonal Scams: Valentine's Day Edition

Romance scams and confidence scams cause both emotional and financial pain. According to the latest FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) figures for 2019, confidence/romance scams ...
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FTC Alert: Coronavirus Scammers Love Scary Bad News

Scary news stories in the headlines always bring out the bad guys looking to make a quick illegal buck.
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Education is Necessary to Stay Ahead of Threats

Most people don’t realize how vulnerable they are to social engineering until they experience it, according to Anna Collard, the founder of KnowBe4’s South African security awareness ...
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Charities Need to Watch Out for Scammers

The UK’s National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has warned charities to be wary of scammers, Charity Digital News reports. The NCVO’s Road Ahead 2020 report outlines trends ...
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Look-alike Domain Spoofing Scam Takes Charity for $1 Million

In yet another case of business email compromise, a charity is fooled through a combination of diligence, sophistication, and social engineering.
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Not the Antiques Roadshow

Scammers conned a Dutch museum into sending them £2.4 million (about $3.1 million) by posing as a real London-based art dealer who planned to sell the museum a John Constable painting, ...
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Unusual New Botnet-driven Phishing Attack With Tricky Downloaders

A large phishing campaign is distributing malicious Excel documents and utilizing irritating pop-ups to trick users into enabling macros, researchers at Lastline have found. The campaign ...
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[Heads-up] Scam Of The Week: Coronavirus Phishing Attacks In The Wild

Yup, you can count on it, when there is a worldwide health scare, the bad guys are on it like flies on $#!+. We are seeing a new malicious phishing campaign that is based on the fear of ...
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