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How Threat Actors are Abusing Coronavirus Uncertainty
Blog

How Threat Actors are Abusing Coronavirus Uncertainty

By Jessica Ryan on Fri, 03/06/2020
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...
Threat Actor Abuses Mobile Sensor to Evade Detection
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Threat Actor Abuses Mobile Sensor to Evade Detection

Thu, 01/09/2020
Every day our teams analyze millions of phish across the web, detected through emails, social media, text messages, and most other common digital vectors. Many phishing sites are easy to review and analyze. However, some threat actors that we track take steps to hide their attacks from people other than their intended victims. This is a defense mechanism that makes it harder to analyze their...
Marketing Teams Are Not Equipped to Monitor Social Media Threats
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Marketing Teams Are Not Equipped to Monitor Social Media Threats

Fri, 11/22/2019
Every second, 5,787 tweets are published. Every minute, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. These are just two of the more popular social networks, and among these data points are the occasional references to a specific organization, its brands, and even customers or employees. For many, these brands have a marketing, communications, or even customer service team dedicated to...
Beware of Account Takeover
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Beware of Account Takeover

Tue, 10/15/2019
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...
Account Takeover Protection
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Threat Actors are Increasing Their Use of Free Hosts

Thu, 07/11/2019
In our continued expansion and exploration of data from this year's annual Phishing Trends and Intelligence report it's time to take a closer look into free hosts. More specifically, the free hosts and domains that threat actors abuse in order to further distribute phishing attacks. While phishing sites that abuse free hosts don't make up the majority, the use of them is increasing dramatically...
Should User Passwords Expire? Microsoft Ends its Policy
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Should User Passwords Expire? Microsoft Ends its Policy

Thu, 06/06/2019
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...
The Rise in Mobile Phishing Attacks
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The Rise in Mobile Phishing Attacks

Wed, 05/29/2019
Each year new phishing techniques result in more attacks successfully landing in user inboxes. In most cases, threat actors are no different than anyone else, and follow the hottest trends in an effort to be more relevant. During tax season they may push out tax scams, during elections they may push bogus political-inspired healthcare emails, and there are even Game of Thrones inspired...
5 Tips for Smarter Detection and Collection of Digital Risks
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5 Tips for Smarter Detection and Collection of Digital Risks

Tue, 03/26/2019
Recently, our Director of Product Management, Cary Hudgins, discussed how to develop a digital risk protection plan for the modern enterprise. One of the many reasons why such a plan should be created is because, in today's world, an enterprise organization's digital footprint can be vast and will continue to grow. Take for example the average employee who receives an average of 90 emails per...
This message is from a trusted sender, or is it?
Blog

Brain-Hacking Part 2: Ain't Nobody Got Time for That!

Tue, 03/19/2019
Taking Advantage of Our Tendency to Simplify There's an old joke floating around the Internet that claims NASA, upon discovering that standard ballpoint pens would not work in space, invested millions of dollars and years of R&D. The resulting pen was supposedly capable of writing in zero-G, on any surface, and in temperatures that would surely kill any astronaut. When confronted with the same...
Romanian Vishing/SMiShing Threat Actors Plead Guilty
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Romanian Vishing/SMiShing Threat Actors Plead Guilty

Fri, 03/15/2019
In May of 2018, we reported on three Romanian threat actors who were extradited to the U.S. for their involvement in a SMiShing and Vishing fraud scheme. At the time of reporting, the expected losses were listed around $18 million but have since risen to more than $21 million. Between July 12 and October 31, 2011, PhishLabs' analysts detected a number of telephone phishing (known as vishing)...
It Only Takes One to Detect or Infect
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It Only Takes One to Detect or Infect

Tue, 03/05/2019
It's time to take action against phish! Phishing attacks are no longer few and far between, they are the norm. Regardless of your company's investments in filtering technologies and countermeasures, suspicious and malicious emails make it into employee inboxes. It only takes one to cost your company time, money, and lost reputation. Unfortunately, even with traditional security awareness...
This message is from a trusted sender, or is it?
Blog

This message is from a trusted sender, or is it?

Tue, 02/26/2019
We've previously reported on how, due to the rise in phishing attempts leveraging SSL certificates, the icon in your web browser gives your users a false sense of security. The threat, however, doesn't end with your web browser. Although first observed as early as 2016, PhishLabs analysts have observed a dramatic uptick in the imitation of flags, banners, and other markup used by applications...
Brain-hacking: Why Social Engineering Is So Effective
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Brain-hacking: Why Social Engineering Is So Effective

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 02/19/2019
You are affected by social engineering tactics every day. Okay, let me explain. From an information security standpoint, Wikipedia says that social engineering is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information[1]. That's true, but social engineering isn't limited to information security; it's something we all experience, every day. In...
Social Risk Monitoring: All Press Good Press?
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Social Risk Monitoring: All Press Good Press?

Fri, 01/04/2019
It happens on a daily basis, it's even likely that at some point it happened to you: social media account takeovers. A quick Google search shows a new batch of celebrities, politicians, companies, and other high profile users becoming the victim of account takeovers on a weekly basis. It's concerning, it can cause a ruckus, and depending on what happened after the fact it can even cause damage...
Geolocation Tracking Poses Risks to Your Employees
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Geolocation Tracking Poses Risks to Your Employees

Tue, 08/21/2018
Exposing your geolocation information publicly can lead to increased personal and business risk. This is particularly important to note in the wake of Google's location tracking, even if you explicitly told them not to. It is remarkable how freely we tell the world one of the most important things about ourselves: where we are. The everyday use of geotagging and geolocation data has enabled many...
Blog

BankBot Anubis Still a Threat, Gets Upgrade

Wed, 08/08/2018
Over the past few years mobile banking trojans have been a persistent threat. While Windows desktops and laptops once made up the lion's share of Internet traffic, mobile devices (particularly Android) have long since become the most common means of browsing the web. With banking trojans now incorporating such a wide range of malicious functionality, it's hardly surprising they have become a...
How To Tackle the Hidden Threat of Social Media
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How To Tackle the Hidden Threat of Social Media

Tue, 07/17/2018
As a marketer I am all too familiar with how social media can benefit or damage a brand. On the one hand, social media offers an easy and (sometimes) free way to communicate with customers, prospects, and partners that many brands have used to great advantage. But on the other hand, it's yet another source of potential threats to an organization's infrastructure and reputation. And for the...
Adwind Remote Access Trojan Still Going Strong
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Using Reported Phish to Hunt Threats

Tue, 07/10/2018
Reported phishing emails are useful for plenty of reasons. They help you measure cyber risk, study common attack trends, and even provide inspiration for your own phishing simulations. One of the security functions that benefit most from reported phishing emails is threat hunting, the process of identifying threats quickly so they can be contained before any major damage is done. Reported...
WannaCry, NotPetya and the Rest: How Ransomware Evolved in 2017
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WannaCry, NotPetya and the Rest: How Ransomware Evolved in 2017

Tue, 05/08/2018
Ransomware. The word strikes fear into the hearts of hospital administrators, local government officers, and small business owners everywhere. After exploding in 2016, ransomware has been covered extensively by media outlets and security experts, to the point where most organizations have started to take at least some action to mitigate their exposure. But have these efforts had any impact?...
Blog

Silent Librarian: More to the Story of the IranianMabna Institute Indictment

By Jessica Ryan on Mon, 03/26/2018
Last Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of nine Iranians who worked for an organization named the Mabna Institute. According to prosecutors, the defendants stole more than 31 terabytes of data from universities, companies, and government agencies around the world. The cost to the universities alone reportedly amounted to approximately $3.4 billion. The...