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Blog

Social Media as a Threat Channel

Social media offers an important outline for people of all ages and walks of life to connect, share life experiences and post pictures of their breakfast. But oversharing - or not being wary of impostors - can lead to serious compromises in personal and professional security. In a press release on the report's findings, Phishlabs “enterprises must broaden their line of defense [in 2022,]...
Blog

Average Organization Sees Two-Fold Increase in Social Media Attacks in 2021

Social Media attacks targeting enterprises increased 103% in 2021, according to PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Social Media is rapidly becoming the threat channel of choice for criminals. The rapid expansion of consumer/business relationships through social platforms, coupled with less refined and controllable online security measures, makes social media a prime target...
Blog

Top Social Media Threats Targeting the Retail Industry

Social media threats targeting enterprises more than doubled last year. Attacks on the retail industry specifically have grown, as threat actors are targeting victims with impersonation and counterfeit ad campaigns. Purchasing behavior is increasingly influenced by social media, making it an attractive vector for these kinds of campaigns. The tendency of social media users to consume information...
On-Demand Webinar

Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Webinar (Feb 2022)

Throughout 2021, PhishLabs detected and mitigated hundreds of thousands of phishing, social media, email, and dark web threats targeting a broad range of enterprises and brands. The PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report provides an analysis of the latest findings and insights into key trends shaping the threat landscape. Join our Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence webinar...
Blog

Social Media Attacks Double in 2021 According to Latest PhishLabs Report

Social Media attacks targeting organizations increased 103% in 2021, according to PhishLabs’ Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. The February 2022 report uses hundreds of thousands of threats analyzed and mitigated by PhishLabs to identify the top phishing and social media attacks targeting enterprises, employees, and their brands, as well as determine emerging trends throughout the threat...
Blog

Social Media Attacks Increase 82%

Attacks targeting enterprises on Social Media have increased 82% since January, according to PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. Threat actors are increasingly abusing Social Media to launch attacks, as lack of security vigilance among users and critical brand presence among organizations makes platforms a desirable way to engage in malicious activity and spoof legitimate...
Blog

Social Media Attacks Increase 47%

Social media threats targeting enterprises have increased 47% since January 2021, according to PhishLabs Quarterly Threat Trends & Intelligence Report. While the attack volume varies by industry, today the average organization is being targeted on social media with increasing frequency. Every quarter, PhishLabs analyzes and mitigates hundreds of thousands of phishing and social media attacks...
Blog

3 Strategies to Enhance Brand Threat Intelligence

Brand threats have accounted for 68% of fraud attacks so far this year. Contrary to traditional cyber attacks, which are designed to compromise the infrastructure or circumvent controls, brand threats live outside of the organization’s control and compromise the reputation of your brand. Common types of brand misrepresentation include spoofed emails, social media scams, and fake mobile apps. The...
Blog

OSINT: How Usernames Unlock Investigations

One piece of evidence that adds value to investigating social media threats is the threat actor’s chosen username. Usernames can hold meaning to the individual, and as a result provide useful information when expanding investigations to different social platforms. As we covered in our last OSINT post, connecting all known social media accounts to one user is a critical step in determining risk,...
Blog

OSINT: Mapping Threat Actor Social Media Accounts

A threatening social media post targeting an executive, employee, brand, or any other asset often has merit to it, and investigating the online accounts associated with the threat actor is imperative in the process of assessing risk. By mapping social media accounts operated by the threat actor, as well as general social media risk monitoring, you can build a more comprehensive profile of the...
Blog

Threat Actor using Social Media to Scam Credit Union Members

Recently, PhishLabs mitigated an attack using a fake social media page to steal the credentials of a credit union (CU) customer. Social media is increasingly used as a vehicle for attacks, and organizations should adopt social media protection measures to stay ahead of threats. The below demonstrates how the attack was executed. The Scam Initially, the threat actor sends the victim a text...
Blog

Using Social Media OSINT to Determine Actor Locations

Obtaining the location of a social media threat actor can provide important information in the process of assessing risk. Verifying a geographical region of a user is vital in determining the credibility and risk level of the posted threatening content. Investigating true locations of threat actors can evidently turn a seemingly baseless low risk social media threat into something that may be...
Blog

Easy to Deceive, Difficult to Detect, Impersonation Dominates Attacks

Impersonation enables threat actors to manipulate victims into disclosing sensitive information as well as enhance their ability to commit fraud. An organization's name, logo, or messaging can be incorporated into almost any threat type, making it an easy and versatile element of a cyber attack. Impersonation is an especially difficult technique to defend against because of its diverse range of...
Blog

How to Take Down Social Media Threats

Threat actors increasingly use social media to attack brands, VIPs, and customers. The types of threats on these platforms are diverse and each social network has different policies in place for how they respond to reported attacks. As a result, mitigating threats on social media can be a frustrating and time-consuming process for security teams. In this post, we break down some common social...
Blog

Social Media Intelligence: Cutting Through the Noise

Social media is rapidly becoming the preferred online channel for threat actors. Almost four billion people use some form of social media, and organizations are increasingly reliant on company pages, executive presence, and positive customer interaction to build a strong brand. As a result, a malicious post or tweet can cause irreversible damage to an enterprise. Last year, 53% of all...
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Executive Impersonation Techniques on Social Media

Threat actors are masquerading as executives on social media for purposes of stealing credentials and damaging popular brands. Today, many executives have accounts on these platforms to network as well as post content promoting their companies. Unfortunately, it is easy for bad actors to create fake accounts and reach massive audiences by impersonating well-known individuals. These types of...
Blog

Data Leakage on Social Media: Credit Card Info, Confidential Docs

When the term data leak comes to mind, most enterprises think of the dark web. Although compromised information can damage an organization when distributed through gated and anonymous platforms, we are seeing social channels being used to allow for a more rapid and potentially destructive outcome. These platforms have an overwhelming number of global participants, with almost half of the world...
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Social Media Platforms Latest Channels used to Leak Sensitive Data

Threat actors are using social media accounts to expose and sell data that has been compromised. While information found on many of these platforms has traditionally been disclosed by enterprises and individuals with intent, cyber criminals are taking information acquired by means of scams and data breaches and promoting their sale on various social platforms not always monitored by security...
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Threat Actors Impersonate Brands on Social Media for Malicious Purposes

With more than 2.95 billion people now estimated to use social media, an organization's online presence directly relates to the satisfaction of its customers, as well as its profits. False or misleading images or comments connected with a brand on online platforms can swiftly impact the reputation or even financials of an otherwise successful company. While most individuals have been...
Blog

COVID-19 Phishing Update: BEC Lures use Pandemic to Enhance Attacks

Threat actors are using the novel coronavirus to add credibility in recent Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. Below are three examples of how they are doing it. 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 exploiting the pandemic. ...