Tag: social engineering
Iran targets Western journalists
Hackers with close ties to the intelligence arm of Iran’s military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, are now personally targeting journalists, professors, and researchers. According to Microsoft, which detected the new activity, Iran is anxious to gather information on the entire range of Western views regarding the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “Based on the identities of the targets observed in this campaign and the use of lures related to the Israel-Hamas war, this campaign may be an attempt to gather perspectives on events related to the war from individuals across the ideological spectrum,” says Microsoft. The Iran-backed hackers, known as Mint Sandstorm, a composite name used to describe several subgroups of activity with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, use a range of new techniques. For example, the hackers use legitimate but compromised email accounts to conduct highly planned phishing attacks against key journalists.
Cyberattack Shuts Down loanDepot IT Systems – January 8th
In response to complaints regarding its payment portal, loanDepot informed its customers that they fell victim to a cyberattack that shut down its IT systems, disrupting its business operations. Currently in coordination with law enforcement and forensics experts to further investigate the attack. The attack on loanDepot marks the second major cyberattack on a US mortgage loan provider in the past few months, after the cyberattack on Mr. Cooper.
Mr. Cooper breach exposes 14m victims’ data
US mortgage service provider Mr. Cooper has disclosed a breach to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) affecting over 14.5 million people. Breached data includes names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, and bank account numbers. The Mr Cooper breach is indicative of several trends likely to shape the cybersecurity industry in 2024. The new obligation to report material cyber breaches within four days that came into effect last week on December 15 is widely expected to reveal a huge iceberg of what might have previously been unreported and, therefore, uncounted cyber breaches. The obligation to detail the loss and those affected also puts a big onus on organizations in all sectors to implement systems capable of identifying and tracking any intrusions into their network.
Beware the poisoned search
Conducting an innocent online search for any business-related document, such as a legal contract, has become as potentially risky as opening a link in an unsolicited email. Ransomware gangs, usually outside US, UK, and EU jurisdiction, are now luring business users of popular search engines to compromised websites designed to look like professional forums, creating a back door into the searcher’s entire organization.
Enterprises face a steep rise in insider threats
As we predicted earlier this year, harsh economic conditions across Western democracies are acting as a catalyst for cybercrime - particularly those cyber-attacks that target staff inside the organization. As cybersecurity becomes more effective, cybercriminals are finding ways to bypass digital security barriers by victimizing and sometimes terrorizing key personnel within the target organization.
Hamas hijacks dead hostages’ smartphones for cyber-strikes
Terrorist group Hamas, which was responsible for the recent atrocities committed in Israel, is reported to be using the smartphones of dead and captured Israeli hostages as entry points to monitor Israeli citizens in preparation for forthcoming cyber-strikes on Israel.
Scattered Spider suspected to be behind Clorox Co breach – October 5th
The hacker group behind the recent breaches of major casino companies, called Scattered Spider, is suspected to be behind a recent attack against Clorox Co in Malaysia. This breach has led to a nationwide shortage of cleaning products and displays the same social-engineering tactics of Scattered Spider.
“Jailbreaking” – cybercrime’s latest buzzword
When cybercriminals speak about “jailbreaking,” they are not discussing springing someone from prison. It refers instead to circumventing safety restrictions on AI-driven chatbots to effectively weaponize AI for criminal purposes.