by Brad Slavin | Dec 28, 2019 | Announcements
Like to play video games? Then you’re a target for a phishing scam. This week’s scam of the week, courtesy of Meta Compliance, is targeted at PlayStation users.
According to the article, “PlayStation users are being warned that scammers are disguising themselves as The Elder Scrolls Online developers in a bid to trick players into disclosing their login credentials. The crooks are targeting PlayStation users via private messages that state their account will be banned if login credentials are not provided within 15 minutes.”
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by Brad Slavin | Dec 19, 2019 | Announcements
Did you think AOL was dead? Well it isn’t. And it’s being used to scam people with phishing emails. According to Scamicide, there is “a phishing email presently circulating that attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to continue using your AOL account. If you click on the link two things can occur and both are bad. Either you will end up providing personal information to an identity thief or you will. merely by clicking on the link, download dangerous malware such as ransomware on to your phone, computer or other device.” Not good.
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by Brad Slavin | Dec 13, 2019 | Announcements
If there’s one thing you should be able to trust, it’s an email from someone with a “.gov” domain. As in, they work for the government. Surely, only those in the government can register a .gov top level domain. Right? Wrong!
From an article on KnowBe4, “a researcher said he got a .gov domain simply by filling out and emailing an online form, grabbing some letterhead off the homepage of a small U.S. town that only has a ‘.us’ domain name, and impersonating the town’s mayor in the application.” Huh?
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by Brad Slavin | Dec 4, 2019 | Announcements
Netflix returns this week in our Scam of the Week section. No real surprises here. According to IT Security Guru, “You may get an email that has the official Netflix logo on it which would say that your payment for the month was not able to go through because of some problem with your bank. The email would then go on to say that if you don’t log in and check your payment details you could potentially end up losing access to your account. Needless to say, when you click the link and log in you will end up giving your account details away to someone that would use them for malicious purposes.”
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by Brad Slavin | Oct 24, 2019 | Announcements
Didn’t even know Facebook had a lottery. Apparently it doesn’t, but that doesn’t stop fraudsters from using it to scam people.
According to ID Theft Center, “The Facebook Lottery Scam is certainly nothing new, but what makes this version different is the accompanying image of a certificate of authenticity made out to the recipient. In this version, which typically comes through private messages on Facebook due to lack of email security service, someone contacts you to let you know that you’ve won, and then informs you that you must show up in person to collect your winnings.
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by Brad Slavin | Oct 16, 2019 | Announcements
Are you an accountant looking for an opportunity to work from home? Be careful, you may be a victim of a phishing scam. That according to the South Carolina Association of CPAs. From the association’s website, “A job hiring scam that advertises a fraudulent work from home accountant opportunity tricks jobseekers into laundering money, warns John LaCour, the founder of Charleston-based cybersecurity firm PhishLabs.”
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by Brad Slavin | Oct 3, 2019 | Announcements
This week’s scams exploit people’s greed, desire to go on vacation and desire to be entertained. This first one is greed. If you have an account with Yahoo, and most people do, then you probably received an email from them this week regarding their Security Breach Proposal Settlement. Or did you?
If there’s money to be had, you know the bad guys will jump on it. According to the security training firm KnowBe4, “The bad guys are going to use the ‘urgency’ trick. The settlement is a set amount, meaning there’s only so much cash to go around. If too many people sign up for the cash option, they will have to split the pool. If someone had to spend time or money dealing with identity theft or other problems they believe stemmed from the Yahoo hacks, they can file a claim for up to $25,000 in out-of-pocket losses. All in all, enough bait to trick people.”
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by Brad Slavin | Sep 27, 2019 | Announcements
We start this week with a repeat offender. From the Daily Mail, news comes that “Scammers have targeted Netflix customers in Australia with an email scam aimed at getting their bank account details. The emails included a link for people to reactive their subscription, which takes them to a Netflix branded phishing page. Once the user logs into their account, they are taken to what appears to be a Netflix account page, with a notification at the top stating their account has been suspended and payment information needs to be updated.”
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by Brad Slavin | Sep 18, 2019 | Announcements
Use your campus library much? You may be the target of the latest phishing scam. According to SC Magazine, ” The Mabna Institute, an Iranian firm whose members were indicted last year for cyberattacks against U.S. universities and other organizations, appears to have launched a new global phishing operation targeting the education sector last July and August.”
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by Brad Slavin | Sep 12, 2019 | Announcements
“Malicious actors target government contractors,” according to SC Magazine. While targeting government contractors certainly isn’t a new occurrence, it does seem to be on the rise. “Over the past few months we have observed the increasing use of yet another type of transaction-based social engineering scheme designed to hook companies dependent on government contracts: the invitation to bid.”
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by Brad Slavin | Sep 5, 2019 | Announcements
It’s one thing to be taken in by a hacker. It’s another thing to be taken in by a bot. Called trickbots, they are a network of bots, or Internet robots, that trick the recipient into divulging some personal information.
Now word comes that the latest trickbot, which is an updated version of an existing trickbot, is being used “to target three of the largest mobile carriers in the United States, namely Verizon Wireless (August 5), T-Mobile (August 12), and Sprint (August 19).” The trickbot in this instance is being used to grab user’s PIN code.
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by Brad Slavin | Aug 29, 2019 | Announcements
You can purchase anything as a service today—even malware. According to ThreatPost, “A phishing campaign that spoofs a PDF attachment to deliver Adwind spyware has been taking aim at national grid utilities infrastructure.”
“Adwind, a.k.a. JRAT or SockRat, is being used in a malware-as-a-service model in this campaign. It offers a full cadre of info-gathering features, including the ability to take screenshots, harvest credentials from Chrome, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, record video and audio, take photos, steal files, perform keylogging, read emails and steal VPN certificates.” One stop shopping to create havoc.
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by Brad Slavin | Aug 23, 2019 | Announcements
Been called to jury duty lately? Even if you haven’t, you might still get phished. Last week, in Ventura County, CA, a phishing scam was going around telling people that they missed their jury duty appointment.
According to the Citizens Journal, “In the calls and emails, recipients are pressured to provide confidential information, potentially leading to identity theft and fraud. These calls and emails, which threaten recipients with fines and jail time if they do not comply are fraudulent and are not connected with the Camarillo Police Department or the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.”
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by Brad Slavin | Aug 16, 2019 | Announcements
If it’s making headlines, you can be sure it’ll be used in a phishing scam. What’s the big news this week? Jeffrey Epstein suicide in jail. Queue the phishing emails.
According to KnowBe4, “a series of scams are underway using the Epstein death as social engineering tactic.” Maybe something to the effect of “See Jeffrey Epstein Last Words on Video.” Admittedly it’s hard not to click on that, but don’t.
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by Brad Slavin | Aug 10, 2019 | Announcements
We’re always impressed when fraudsters come up with new and clever ways to execute phishing scams and this week didn’t disappoint us. This week we get word of a phishing scam disguised as fake e-tickets for Korean Airlines.
According to the article, “South Korean flag carrier Korean Air (KE) has warned customers against phishing scams using fake e-tickets. Seungwon Chung, KE Global Communications deputy general manager, confirmed with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday that the carrier has received [a] few complaints regarding this recently.”
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by Brad Slavin | Aug 8, 2019 | Announcements
DuoCircle, an email security company, has just completed its first scholarship program offering a $1000 award for the best essay or video on email privacy and security.
Specific topics covered included the following:
- How can the underlying causes of phishing be addressed?
- What will change in email security in the next 10 years?
- How would you teach older folks or children to avoid phishing and protect their privacy?
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by Brad Slavin | Jul 31, 2019 | Announcements
It wouldn’t be a week if there was some scam aimed at Apple customers. Now comes word of a phony Apple phishing email. “Although the email address from which it was sent appears to be legitimate, upon closer examination you can determine it is not an official email address of Apple. As phishing emails go, this one is pretty good.”
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by Brad Slavin | Jul 24, 2019 | Announcements
Most phishing emails contain a malicious link in the hope that the recipient will click on it. Phishing prevention technology is wise to this tactic, which has forced attackers to adapt. Their latest adaptation is a novel new phishing technique targeting American Express customers, by breaking the malicious link up into two parts.
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by Brad Slavin | Jul 20, 2019 | Announcements
We anticipate that the DNS migration to Cloudflare on July 20th, 2019 will be uneventful, however in the event that there is an issue we have incorporated DNS redundancies into your
email services.
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by Brad Slavin | Jul 18, 2019 | Announcements
This is not a good time to be a city in Florida if you’re looking to avoid a ransomware attack. First it was Riviera Beach on June 5. Then it was Lake City on June 10. Now it’s Key Biscayne. According to the Miami Herald, “The village of Key Biscayne confirmed Thursday it had been hit by a cyberattack — the third Florida city this month to fall victim to outside hackers.”
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