Attackers Cashing In On Cryptocurrency With Increased Scams

As the popularity around cryptocurrency has continued to boom in 2018, it has also tempting target for cash-hungry scammers to launch “cryptocurrency giveaway scams.” Researchers at Proofpoint this week said they’ve observed a sharp rise in these scams, which target users of Ethereum and Bitcoin...

A week in security (May 14 – May 20)

Last week, we looked at the deluge of incoming policies caused by GDPR, tackled Adobe Reader zero days, and ran through some iPhone security tips. We also caught some helpline scammers in the act, explored advergaming, got our Senate Bill game face on, and deep dived into Drupal vulnerabilities...

Where did the tech support scam blacklist go?

For about five years, we've maintained a blacklist of recognized tech support scammers, along with websites and phone numbers they might use to contact victims. The blacklist was part of our Tech support scams: help and resource page, which tells readers how scams work, what tricks to look out fo...

FBI Releases IC3 2017 Internet Crime Report

FBI has released the Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 2017 Internet Crime Report, which highlights scams trending online. The top three crime types reported by victims in 2017 were non-payment/non-delivery, personal data breach, and phishing. Hot topics for 2017 include ransomware, business...

Phishing in the Wild: A New Threat Research Paper

Phishing is an extremely common attack vector that has been used for many years, and the potential impact and risks involved are well known to most Internet users. Despite this, phishing is still a highly relevant attack method being used in the wild, affecting many people. The question is, how c...

A New Cryptocurrency Mining Virus is Spreading Through Facebook

If you receive a link for a video, even if it looks exciting, sent by someone or your friend on Facebook messenger—just don't click on it without taking a second thought. Cybersecurity researchers from Trend Micro are warning users of a malicious Chrome extension which is spreading through Facebo...

Far Cry 5 download offers: embrace the power of “no”

The recently released Far Cry 5 is a video game where you reclaim Montana from a cult obsessed with the "power of yes" by hitting members over the head with a shovel. It's also one of the biggest sellers for publisher Ubisoft to date, and it stands to reason that many people would like to grab a...

Deleted Facebook Cybercrime Groups Had 300,000 Members

Hours after being alerted by KrebsOnSecurity, Facebook last week deleted almost 120 private discussion groups totaling more than 300,000 members who flagrantly promoted a host of illicit activities on the social media network's platform. The scam groups facilitated a broad spectrum of shady...

Microsoft to deliver new products and strategies for security innovation at 2018 RSA Conference

At the 2018 RSA Conference, our senior leaders will dissect modern cyber defense strategies, and reveal new products to detect and block cyber attacks when they happen. Our objective is to arm business, government and consumers with deeply integrated intelligence and threat protection capabilitie...

Pocket cryptofarms

In recent months, the topic of cryptocurrency has been a permanent news fixture — the value of digital money has been see-sawing spectacularly. Such pyrotechnics could hardly have escaped the attention of scammers, which is why cryptocurrency fluctuations have gone hand in hand with all kinds of...

A week in security (March 26 – April 01)

Last week, we looked at the thought process behind creating a ransomware decryptor, the inner workings of QuantLoader, the ways one can protect their Android devices, the exploit kits we have encountered this winter, the now-known epidemic of data breaches, the coming of TLS 1.3, and the ways one...

Easter Holiday Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns

As the Easter holiday approaches, NCCIC/US-CERT reminds users to be aware of potential holiday scams and cyber campaigns, which may include emails and ecards from unknown senders that may contain malicious links, fake advertisements or shipping notifications with attachments infected with malware...

Tax Guidance as Deadline Approaches

As this year's April 17 tax deadline approaches, NCCIC/US-CERT offers taxpayers guidance to help protect their personal, financial, and tax information. Hackers can take advantage of taxpayers by using social engineering scams to attempt to steal personally identifiable information. NCCIC...

Omitting the “o” in .com Could Be Costly

Take care when typing a domain name into a browser address bar, because it's far too easy to fat-finger a key and wind up somewhere you don't want to go. For example, if you try to visit some of the most popular destinations on the Web but omit the "o" in .com and type .cm instead, there's a good...

Researchers Show How Popular Text Editors Can Be Attacked Via Third-Party Plugins

Security risks in popular extensible text editors allow hackers to abuse plugins and escalate privileges on targeted systems, according to new research from SafeBreach. Inadequate separation of regular and elevated access modes used in editors and a lack of folder permissions integrity allow...

Tech support scammers GeeksHelp caught again, two years later

Many researchers have noted an increase in tech support scam activity during the past few months. This trend, facilitated by browser lockers, is not surprising considering that other web-based infection methods are not as effective. While people are still receiving cold calls from alleged Microso...

2017’s Biggest Threats and What CISOs Can do to Mitigate Risks in 2018

Enterprise Risk Management ERM is getting harder every day. According to the World Economic Forum‘s 2018 Global Risks Perception Survey, cyber attacks and data theft are 3 and 4 respectively of the top 5 likely risks organizations will face this year. This is not surprising, in 2017 CISOs the wor...

Ad Network Circumvents Ad-Blocking Tools To Run In-Browser Cryptojacker Scripts

Cryptojackers are getting resourceful and have figured out how to bypass ad-blocking software and deliver the Coinhive JavaScript miner via browser-based ads. Researchers at Qihoo’s Netlab 360 said it recently spotted an advertising network that was using what is called a domain generation...

Human Factor Podcast: Jenny Radcliffe and Chris Boyd

A little while ago, I was invited to take part in Jenny Radcliffe's Human Factor Podcast. With 44 episodes strong and counting!, Jenny spends an hour or so talking at length with her guests who are professional investigators, security advocates, all-round educators, tireless consultant/conference...

New BEC Spam Campaign Targets Fortune 500 Businesses

Researchers have identified a wave of new business email compromise campaigns targeting Fortune 500 companies that are designed to trick victims into fraudulent wire transfers. Researchers said the campaigns originate from Nigeria and are targeting companies in the retail, healthcare and financia...