KnowBe4 Blog

Social Engineering

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

Healthcare Sector Experiencing Increases in Ransomware, Ransoms and Downtime

An analysis of ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations from 2016 through October of 2023 shows the healthcare sector is likely to continue to suffer as a viable ransomware target.

Spear Phishing Becomes Most Common Attack Technique in Q3 2023

Spear phishing was the most common attack technique in the third quarter of 2023, according to researchers at ReliaQuest.

Cybersecurity Expert: AI Lends Phishing Plausibility for Bad Actors

Cybersecurity experts expect to see threat actors increasingly make use of AI tools to craft convincing, highly targeted and sophisticated social engineering attacks, according to Eric ...

Small Businesses are Experiencing More Cyber Attacks

As large organizations realize the likelihood of cyber attacks and improve their cyber readiness, small businesses are seeing increases not experienced by their larger counterparts.

September Sees a 32% Increase in the Number of Ransomware Attacks in Just One Month

Continued analysis of ransomware attacks shows an upward trend in the number of attacks, with September resulting in the highest number of assaults so far this year.

Cybercriminal Group Octo Tempest and Its Menacing Phishbait

Microsoft is tracking a cybercriminal group called “Octo Tempest” that uses threats of violence as part of its social engineering and data theft extortion campaigns.

FBI Warns of North Korean Social Engineering Tactics and Recruitment/Hiring of IT Workers

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have issued an advisory offering guidance to “the international community, the private sector, ...

Most Organizations Believe Malicious Use of AI is Close to Evading Detection

As organizations continue to believe the malicious use of artificial intelligence (AI) will outpace its defensive use, new data focused on the future of AI in cyber attacks and defenses ...

A Brief History of Phishing, and Other Forms of Social Engineering

Social engineering attacks have a very long history, though the Internet has made it easier to launch these attacks en masse, according to Sean McNee at DomainTools. McNee points to an ...

Summit Sabotage: Malicious Phishing Campaign Hits Female Political Leaders Using Social Engineering

A threat actor dubbed “Void Rabisu” used social engineering to target attendees of the Women Political Leaders (WPL) Summit that was held in Brussels from June 7 to 8, 2023, Trend Micro ...