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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.

News - FBI warns against malware installed via hotel networks

The Internet Crime Complaint Center had this 'Intelligence Note': "Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers ...
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The Average Cyberespionage Attack Goes On For 416 Days

WIRED Mag has a great article by Kim Zetter. It boils down to the fact that high-level hackers are able to get and stay in your network. And even if you are able to kick them out, they ...
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Symantec Report Says User Behavior is Root of Most Breaches

Tracy Kitten over at BankInfoSecurity spotted something interesting in Symantec's recent Internet Security Threat Report. This is the upshot: "Which Internet security threats pose the ...
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$1,000 Walmart Gift Card Scam Inflates Your Phone Bill

We have seen crooked Walmart gift card offers before, but now and then I run across one that's craftier than earlier versions. And as usual, you do not get the gift card, but a high dose ...
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Proof: Antivirus Only Defends Against Low-skilled Attackers

The SANS Computer Forensics and Incident Response team built a real-life network for their students so they could learn how to hack into the network. They put McAfee enterprise endpoint ...
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Bogus PayPal payment alert causes malware infection

Gary Warner just reported: "A new malicious spam campaign has just launched this morning targeting Paypal users. This malware campaign attempts to "social engineer" users into clicking a ...
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Cybercrime uses hidden file extensions to trick users

Symantec contributor Fred Gutierrez shows clearly in this blog post why it can be deadly to click on a .JPG file: "Cybercriminals have continuously evolved their methods throughout the ...
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Omaha cast net that caught cyberthieves

Matthew Hansen, World-Herald Staff Writer just wrote a great article that illustrates what I have been warning about these last years. It starts out like this: "Imagine for a moment that ...
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How to Start an IT Security Awareness Program

Mike Chapple is an IT professional and assistant professor of computer applications at the University of Notre Dame. He wrote at biztechmagazine:"Are your users aware of their ...
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Check Out This NY Traffic Ticket Phish!

Kevin Mitnick sent this phish over. It's a classic attempt to get you to avaid a problem, but the moment you click this link, life will become a lot more painful. So... Stop. Look. Think ...
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Antivirus 10-Second Flash Survey: Is this bonus attractive?

You're in the market to replace your existing Antivirus. One of the vendors on your shortlist has a Special Bonus they are offering. They are going to give you a free high-quality ...
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Bogus Olympics 2012 Email Warning Blindside Users With Malware

The upcoming London Olympics is undoubtedly one of the most highly-anticipated sports event of the year. It is also a favorite social engineering ploy among cybercriminals. Just recently, ...
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Scam Of The Week: 'The Evil Unsub'

An ordinary piece of spam slips through the filters, and you see a gorgeous sandy beach with palm trees. It's an enticing ad for a vacation to a tropical island, basically a big picture ...
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Six Steps To Successful Security Awareness Training

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SMS-controlled Malware Hijacks Android Phones

Researchers at NQ Mobile, working alongside researchers at North Carolina State University, have discovered new Android malware that is controlled via SMS that can do a number of things ...
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Finally Defined: 'Advanced Persistent Threat'

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="650" caption="Advanced Persistent Threat"][/caption]
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Global Payment Hack: Almost 340 Million Drop in Value

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="290" caption="Global Payment Hacked"][/caption] This is what they said in their press release: “Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN), a leader in ...
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Malicious Office documents target Mac OS X

Trendmicro reported: "We have recently analyzed a series of emails sent to specific users that leverage a certain prominent socio-political issue. One of these messages is about the ...
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Shield your business from cybercrooks

Anne Fisher, Editor of New York's Executive Inbox wrote: "Can you recognize a potentially disastrous breach of your computer system’s security when you see it? Let’s find out with two ...
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Look Ma, malware without files!

Wow, instead of an exploit dropping a file onto the file system and running it... a DLL is injected straight into memory from the exploit, leaving nothing to scan on the harddrive. Writen ...
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