A week in security (March 18 – 24)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we touched on the susceptibility of hospitals against phishing attacks, password reuse, the risk of interactive TV shows to side-channel attacks, and Facebook's new and out-of-character plan to promote privacy in the platform. Other cybersecurity news A study...

RSA Conference 2019: BEC Scammer Gang Takes Aim at Boy Scouts, Other Nonprofts

SAN FRANCISCO – A Nigeria-based scammer gang dubbed “Scarlet Widow” has been launching email fraud attacks against thousands of targets – including universities, the Salvation Army, and Boy Scouts of America. Researchers with Agari detailed the attack during an RSA Conference session on Tuesday...

Protecting against the next wave of advanced threats targeting Office 365 – Trend Micro Cloud App Security 2018 detection results and customer examples

Since the release of “Trend Micro Cloud App Security 2017 Report” about a year ago, threats using email as the delivery vector have grown significantly. Business Email Compromise BEC scams have already caused USD $12.5 billion in global losses as of 2018 – a 136.4% increase from the $5.3 billion...

Don’t Blame Employees who fall for a BEC scam!

The BBC reports that a media company based in Scotland is now suing a former employee who fell for a Business Email Compromise BEC scam. In the scam, the employee received emails which appeared to be from the managing director and requested wire transfers. The employee worked with her line manage...

A week in security (February 4 – 8)

Last week on Malwarebytes Labs, we took a closer look at the technical and reputational challenges for Facebook as it tries to integrate secure messaging across Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. We explored Google’s latest attempts to change how the public sees—literally—web browser URLs, gave...

Using Gmail "Dot Addresses" to Commit Fraud

In Gmail addresses, the dots don't matter. The account "[email protected]" maps to the exact same address as "[email protected]" and "[email protected]" -- and so on. Note: I own none of those addresses, if they are actually valid. This fact can be used to commit fraud:...

BEC Will Reach Two Levels Deeper

In our predictions report for 2019, “Mapping the Future: Dealing with Pervasive and Persistent Threats,” we foresaw an increase in the rate of BEC business email compromise attacks: “Business email compromise will go two levels down in the org chart.” From the report: | “Business email compromise...

Shipping Firms Speared with Targeted 'Whaling' Attacks

Scammers are honing in on the shipping industry, using “whaling,” a.k.a. business email compromise BEC attacks, to scoop up credentials, or worse, compromise critical systems. Hackers are launching whaling attacks to target various types of employees with some serious online and sometimes...

ThreatList: Gift Card-Themed BEC Holiday Scams Spike

With cyber threats rampant between Black Friday and Christmas, security experts are warning of a wave of business-style email scams hitting inboxes designed to appeal to holiday shoppers. Attacks involve scam messages purporting to be gift card deals or links to corporate donations. According to...

Today’s Data Breach Environment: An Overview

By now, companies and consumers alike are well aware of the threat of a data breach. Large and small businesses across every sector have been targeted, and many customers are now familiar with the notification that their username, password or other details might have been compromised. The...

The BEC List: Helping Thwart Business Email Compromise through Collaboration

Today, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group M3AAWG gave the JD Falk Award to the Business Email Compromise BEC List. The BEC List comprises cybersecurity firms, researchers and internet infrastructure companies that help deal with cybercriminal activities and schemes. The JD...

This Week in Security News: Tracking and Hacking

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, Google revealed a secret deal with Mastercard that allows it to track what users buy offline. Also, Senate and House representatives warn th...

ThreatList: 60% of BEC Attacks Fly Under the Radar

Up to 60 percent of business email compromise BEC attacks don’t involve a malicious link, making it more difficult for employees and email security systems to spot that something is amiss, a recent report found. Researchers at Barracuda, in a new study of 3,000 BEC attacks, found that most of the...

BEC is Big Business for Hackers: What makes these attacks so hard to prevent?

For years, one of the most lucrative ways for hackers to generate profits was through ransomware attacks. These instances involve the use of strong encryption to lock victims out of their files and data - attackers then sell the decryption key in exchange for an untraceable Bitcoin ransom payment...

Cybercriminals Changing Tactics as Seen in First Half Report

Today, Trend Micro released its first half 2018 security roundup report in which we want to share the threat intelligence we discovered through the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network that allows us to identify the threats that have targeted our customer base. Below are some thoughts I’d like to...

A week in security (July 16 – July 22)

Last week on Labs, we looked at a Magniber expansion, explored open source vulnerabilities, and checked out the boons and drawbacks of smart assistants. We also continued our ad blocking article extravaganza, gave a whistlestop tour of third-party problems, and published our Q2 Cybercrime tactics...

This Week in Security News: BEC and Blackgear

Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, the FBI reports a global BEC loss of over $12 billion in 2018. Also, a Blackgear cyberespionage campaign has reemerged, using social media a...

How attackers are abusing high-profile users and executives

Email is the prime communication channel for businesses and their employees worldwide. In fact, last year saw more than 269 billion emails sent per day, and Radicati Group researchers predict that by 2021, this number will rise to more than 319 billion. With so much critical and sensitive...

74 arrested after FBI disrupts International gang of BEC scammers

By Waqas In a joint operation, the FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation, This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: 74 arrested after FBI disrupts International gang of BEC scammers...

FBI’s BEC Crackdown Leads To 74 Arrests Globally

The FBI announced Monday the results of a major crackdown on scammers behind business email compromise BEC campaigns that resulted in 74 arrests and the retrieval of millions of dollars. Several U.S. federal authorities and police from other countries were involved in Operation WireWire, a...