Human Risk Management Blog

Social Engineering

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

Have Your Users Been Exposed in the 8.5 Billion Breached Records This Year?

Data breaches are getting bigger, the bad guys are getting more cunning, and the amount of compromised data is unfortunately continuing to rise. According to RiskBased Security, breach ...

Police warn of new 'line-trapping technology' being used to scam people over the phone

TORONTO -- A new piece of sophisticated technology is being used by fraudsters to scam unsuspecting people over the phone. Police said a woman in York Region received a call earlier this ...

Gift Card Scams are Decreasing in Light of Other Business Email Compromise Scams

New data from email security vendor Agari shows Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks shifting tactics last quarter, in favor of scams resulting in larger payouts.

Identity Deception-Based Phishing Attacks Show an Increase in Impersonating Individuals

The use of impersonating a person or brand as part of an attack in on the rise, giving attackers the upper hand, establishing instant credibility and lowering the defenses of the ...

Phishing for Gamers Uses A Fake Skin Giveaway

BleepingComputer warns that a fake Steam skin giveaway site is stealing users’ Steam credentials. The site appears to be running a 26-day promotion giving away free skins for ...

Insecure Database Exposes Millions of Private SMS Messages

Researchers discovered an unprotected TrueDialog database hosted by Microsoft Azure with diverse and business-related data from tens of millions of users.

You Can’t Always Trust a Dot-Gov Domain

It may be easier than one thinks to register a dot-gov domain, according to KrebsOnSecurity. People have tended to regard urls with the top-level domain dot gov as generally reliable, but ...

Over Half of SMBs Experience Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

The assertion that SMBs aren’t a cyber-target is officially dead. SMBs are victims of the very same attacks as enterprises in growing numbers, according to new research.

Insurers Get Serious About Social Engineering Attacks Citing a Lack of Awareness as the Problem

With specific endorsements to protect against social engineering scams, insurers are realizing where the true risk lies in cyberattacks and make recommendations of how to mitigate it.

Merchant fined for failing to train employees — Former NYDFS Superintendent Vullo Talks About Cybersecurity Regs

Mark Harrop, Director of Communications, Corporates at Thomson Reuters made me aware of a very interesting interview with Maria Vullo, the former Superintendent of New York’s Department ...

Phishing scams on the up in the Netherlands

Mina Solanki, an expat in Holland wrote: "After years of declining, phishing is on the up. In 2018, the (monetary) damage caused by it had almost quadrupled compared to previous years. ...

The Top Lesson From The Recent Louisiana 2,000-server Ransomware Infection: "User Education, User Education, User Education"

Louisiana suffered a ransomware attack last week that took down more than two thousand of the state’s computers and servers. The ransomware apparently entered the network after a user ...

Google Sent 12K Nation-State Phishing Warnings In Three Months

Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) delivered thousands of alerts of government-backed attempts to spearphish gmail users over just a three-month period earlier this year, they reported.

Phishing Simulations Should be Educational, not Punitive

Phishing training programs need to be focused on educating employees rather than on shaming them, according to David Spark and Allan Alford, co-hosts of the Defense in Depth podcast. On ...

Waterloo Brewing loses $2.1 million in social engineering cyberattack

Waterloo Brewing Ltd. says it has lost $2.1 million in what it calls a social engineering cyberattack. The Ontario brewery says the incident occurred in early November and involved the ...

[Heads-up. This Is Ugly] After Refusing The Maze Ransomware Payment, Their Stolen Data Was Leaked

After a deadline was missed for receiving a ransom payment, the group behind Maze Ransomware has published almost 700 MB worth of data and files stolen from a security staffing firm. Our ...

A massive international email scam netted $3 million worth of top-secret US military equipment

In a recent case first reported by Quartz, a crew of international cyber criminals allegedly convinced an unidentified US defense contractor to send them millions of dollars worth of ...

It's Happening The World Over: $300K Lost To Phone Scammer

A woman in Singapore lost $300,000 to a scammer posing as a Singtel customer service employee, according to the Straits Times. The scammer told the victim he would fix some problems with ...

An Australian Watering Hole (but in Canberra, not the Outback)

The Australian Federal Parliament suffered a malware infection earlier this year after some users fell victim to a watering hole attack, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ...

Cybercriminal Gang, Silent Starling, Creates New ‘Vendor Email Compromise’ Category

New attacks focus on organizations with global supply chains looking to trick a supplier’s customers into paying fake invoices and have already impacted 500 organizations worldwide.


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