The AI-powered cyberattack era is here
Prognosticators have been prognosticating for 20 years about a future in which hackers use AI to breach networks, steal data, and socially engineer credulous employees. And like so many AI-related futurisms in the age of LLM-based generative AI, this prediction is coming true. Anthropic reported last week that a hacker used its technology for an […] more…Getting Your Kids Ready for School—And Their Smartphones Too
If you’re the parent of a tween or teen, chances are they’re not the only ones going back to school. Their smartphones are going back too. Our recent global research showed just how many tweens and teens use a smartphone. Plenty. Depending on the age band, that figure ranges anywhere from 76% to 93%, with […] more…Spam and phishing in Q3 2021
Quarterly highlights Scamming championship: sports-related fraud This summer and early fall saw some major international sporting events. The delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament was held in June and July, followed by the equally delayed Tokyo Olympics in August. Q3 2021 also featured several F1 Grand Prix races. There was no way that cybercriminals and profiteers could […] more…Great R packages for data import, wrangling, and visualization
The table below shows my favorite go-to R packages for data import, wrangling, visualization and analysis — plus a few miscellaneous tasks tossed in. The package names in the table are clickable if you want more information. To find out more about a package once you’ve installed it, type help(package = "packagename") in your R […] more…Financial Cyberthreats in 2020
2020 was challenging for everyone: companies, regulators, individuals. Due to the limitations imposed by the epidemiological situation, particular categories of users and businesses were increasingly targeted by cybercriminals. While we were adjusting to remote work and the rest of the new conditions, so were scammers. As a result, 2020 was extremely eventful in terms of digital […] more…Game of Threats
Introduction While the way we consume TV content is rapidly changing, the content itself remains in high demand, and users resort to any means available to get at it – including illegal and non-ethical ones like the use of pirated stuff. The world is embracing the idea of paying for entertainment more and more with […] more…International Women’s Day in the Channel
I have had the privilege of working with many exceptional people over the course of my career. For International Women’s Day this year, I wanted to feature some of the dedicated and talented women I have the opportunity to work with in the Channel. The following individuals have great advice and stories that we all […] more…Ransomware Families Use NSIS Installers to Avoid Detection, Analysis
Malware families are constantly seeking new ways to hide their code, thwart replication, and avoid detection. A recent trend for the delivery of ransomware is the use of the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS) with an encrypted payload. The list of the most common families using this technique is diverse and includes Cerber, Locky, Teerac, Crysis, […] more…EyePyramid and a Lesson on the Perils of Attribution
In the past weeks, information-stealing malware EyePyramid made headlines after it was used to steal 87GB of sensitive data from government offices, private companies and public organizations. More than 100 email domains and 18,000 email accounts were targeted, including those of high-profile victims in Italy, the U.S., Japan and Europe. The natural assumption for many […] more…Can Internet of Things be the New Frontier for Cyber Extortion?
The Internet of Things (IoT)—the network of devices embedded with capabilities to collect and exchange information—has long been attracting the attention of cybercriminals as it continues to gain momentum in terms of its adoption. Gartner has estimated that more than 20.8 billion IoT devices will be in use by 2020; IoT will be leveraged by […] more…SINOWAL Attempts To Disable Rapport, Aid ZBOT
The year might be coming to a close but we’re still seeing our 2013 predictions come true. We encountered an attack that featured an old malware with new routines. This malware, detected as BKDR_SINOWAL.COP specifically attempts to disable the Rapport software from Trusteer. Figure 1. Code that looks for the Trusteer Rapport module Rapport is software […] more…Facebook Spam Leverages, Abuses Instagram App
The downside of popularity is that cybercriminals tend to abuse it for their own nefarious ends. Case in point, social networking sites have been often used to proliferate malware. Just recently, we spotted a Facebook clickjacking attack that leverages and abuses Instagram to point users to malicious websites. Users encounter this threat by being tagged […] more…More information
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