As COVID-19 continues to spread, we are seeing an increase in threat actors impersonating public health organizations and luring victims in with fake links to government agencies. The four examples below impersonate the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) using lures we have recently observed. We are providing ongoing updates on coronavirus...

We continue to see a wide range of lures exploiting coronavirus fears. In this post, we take a look at three recently observed lure samples that use the possibility of a cure to entice victims. We are providing ongoing updates on coronavirus-themed attacks observed by the PhishLabs team. This post and others are meant to help the security community stay up-to-date on how threat actors are...

As COVID-19 cases have further spread over the past few weeks, our team has come across new lures that target an individual's fear of coronavirus as it relates to their health insurance coverage. Both examples lead to malicious sites that attempt to steal Microsoft Office 365 login credentials. We are providing ongoing updates on coronavirus-themed attacks observed by the PhishLabs team. This...

A few weeks ago we noted some early examples of Coronavirus phishing campaigns. Since then, the pandemic has spread and we've seen a dramatic uptick in COVID-19-themed malicious activity, with everything from domain registration to phishing emails and even malware campaigns. Going forward, we will be publishing more examples as we find additional methods cybercriminals are using to exploit the...

By this time, most everyone in the world has heard about COVID-19, a global outbreak that is commonly referred to as the Coronavirus. With growing fear and a lack of information, the stock markets have dropped to lows we haven't seen in years, and organizations everywhere are putting together contingency plans. Like most global events, this scenario creates a perfect opportunity for threat...

In order to increase the lifespan of their campaigns, most threat actors implement evasion techniques to keep their activity from being detected by defenders and their intelligence tools. In this blog post, we'll take a look at how geoblocking by IP is used. Geoblocking by IP takes advantage of the victim's location. It is often used on sites hosting malicious content to limit the exposure...

Social media account compromise is nothing new. If you haven't had an account hacked in the past, most of us know someone who has. According to a study by the University of Phoenix, almost two-thirds of US adults have had at least one social media account hacked. Another report found that 53% of social media logins are fraudulent. But what's the big deal? Your account gets hacked, you...

On August 30, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey became the most notable victim of one of the fastest-growing cyber threats: SIM Swapping. SIM Swap Attacks are increasing because they only require social engineering and access to a SIM card, which makes it another form of phishing. You can find our definition of phishing here. In a few words, it isn't that difficult. What is SIM Swapping? SIM...

On a daily basis, most people will use some form of social media. From checking photos of your friends and pets, to communicating with coworkers and loved ones, social media is a large part of the connected world. Unfortunately, this also means that the more social media is used, the more likely that threat actors will try to exploit it. Join us on February 6, at 3 PM ET, as we discuss how...

PhishLabs has detected attempts to compromise Microsoft Office 365 administrator accounts as part of a broad phishing campaign. In the campaign, the threat actor(s) delivered a phishing lure that impersonated Microsoft and their Office 365 brand but came from multiple validated domains - an educational institution for example - not belonging to Microsoft. If the victim clicked the link, they...

This week, APWG released its findings from Q3 that compiles insights from their member companies and provides an analysis of how phishing is changing. The key findings from the latest report show that phishing attacks continued to rise throughout the year, 40% of BEC attacks involve domains registered by the threat actor, and now more than two-thirds of all phishing sites are using SSL certs or...

At the height of social media adoption, users willingly shared everything from the lunch they just ate to the exact places they visited throughout the day. While some of this has been reduced as consumers learned how sharing private information could impact their privacy, many people still hide these kinds of updates behind basic security controls. This is just one of the reasons that a flurry of...

This year organizations are estimated to have spent more than $124 billion on security, yet phishing attacks continue to bypass email security technology. Is it possible to proactively stop threats that would otherwise make it past your infrastructure? If you attended our most recent webinar, you know the answer is yes. Before we get into the how, our host and Director of Product Management,...

One way to verify if an email is legitimate is to look at the sender's address, the actual sender's address, not just the sender's name. One tactic cyber criminals employ is using the sender's name to trick the recipients. The cyber criminal may use a known acquaintance's name or the name of a legitimate company they are trying to spoof. This sounds sophisticated, but it is easy to catch when...

In the past 48 hours, PhishLabs has identified and successfully thwarted a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting the Office 365 credentials of high-value targets. This campaign is still active, and security teams should familiarize themselves with the tactics, indicators, and remain vigilant. In these attacks, the threat actor(s) is posing as private equity firms submitting non-disclosure...

This week APWG released its findings from Q2 of this year that compiles insights from their member companies and provides an analysis of how phishing is changing. This quarter's report shows that phishing attacks continue to increase, both SaaS and email service providers are prime targets, BEC attacks are focused on getting gift cards, and more than half of phishing sites continue to abuse...

This week, the Department of Justice for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announced the final of three sentences to be carried out by cybercriminals that plead guilty to carrying out phishing campaigns involving vishing and SMiShing. I'm proud to say that the apprehension and conviction of these criminals was supported in part by intelligence PhishLabs provided in...

Defining phishing is simple, right? Not exactly. With more than 18,400,000 results appearing on Google when trying to find the definition there is a lot for you to choose from. Even Wikipedia has its own version, which may be more accurate, but still misses a few key elements. As a company, PhishLabs has seen the scope of how phishing is changing since first being named, which is why it's time...

If you have ever worked for an organization that uses Microsoft-based systems, there is a high likelihood that your IT or security team has implemented a policy that occasionally forces you to create a new password. Years ago it was every three months, then every two, and so on. This policy was heavily encouraged by Microsoft, but as of May of this year, they have reversed course. According to...