The newest phishing email to hit my Outlook inbox had a visual message: Spammers have learned that design sells. Most phish are really like fish – they smell, and not just after three days. There usually is something that screams “FAKE” and practically pushes you to trash it. The obvious forgery of most phish also […]
Phishing continues to blight the Internet and is a thorn in the side of companies around the globe. Not only is it one of the most serious problems facing any company with even a minimal activity on the Web, it is also an ever-increasing threat.
So much so, that a recent studyhas revealed that in the last year alone there have been more than a million attacks of this nature. This means that on average, a phishing attack is launched every thirty seconds with the aim of defrauding companies and home-users alike. In the case of businesses, the damage inflicted by this onslaught is nothing short of dramatic: the total cost to companies around the world is in excess of 9,000 million dollars, more than 8,000 million euros at today’s exchange rate.
The total cost to companies around the world is in excess of 9,000 million dollars.
Given this situation, in addition to having proper protection, it is more important than ever that companies follow a series of recommendations to prevent falling victim to an attack that could have grave financial consequences. Checking the source of each email you receive and not accessing bank websites from links included in emails are two of the basic precautions you can take to avoid falling into the traps set by cyber-criminals.
What makes these and other similar measures so essential is the dramatic increase in phishing attacks that has taken place over the last year. In the second quarter of 2016 alone, more than half a million unique attacks were identified, that’s a 115 percent increase on the previous quarter. Moreover, the increase with respect to the same period in 2015 is even more alarming: 308 percent.
In the second quarter of the year “Phishing” attacks have been incresing in a 115 %
To counter this situation, it is essential for companies to ensure that their employees are aware that they must only enter confidential data on trusted websites which, as with all secure pages, have an address starting with HTTPS. Phishing attacks are on the rise and they are also evolving. Now, for example, not only are they aimed at identity theft on social networks or taking money from current accounts, they are also being used to steal from e-Wallets.
The hacker who stole nude photographs of female celebrities two years ago in a massive data breach — famous as “The Fappening” or “Celebgate” scandal — has finally been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, authorities said on Thursday.
36-year-old Lancaster, Pennsylvania man Ryan Collins was arrested in March and charged with hacking into “at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail
Some shop owners leave their shops unattended, be it due to bad configuration or missing updates. It’s the “Key in the ignition – engine running” scenario. The problem: those oversights are easy to spot and hack, all one needs to do is write a script.
Whether you usually use a personal or corporate credit card, anyone can be the victim of a data breach. Criminals can easily use a phishing attack to take your card number, PIN and even the security code on the back of your card. What’s worse is that they’re so quick! By the time you’ve discovered the theft, it will be too late. Even if your company quickly cancels the card, you will already have some serious problems… the thief will have already spent your hard earned cash.
These kind of attacks happen more often than you think. In the first half of 2016 there were more than a million cases of financial fraudwith the objective of robbing credit card data. This statistic is worrisome, without a doubt, especially considering that this number doubled the results from 2015.
This is where Motion Code steps in. This new technology was developed by the French company Oberthur and will revolutionize the way we make purchases. Its goal is pretty simple: to preserve your security by changing the security code on the back of your credit card, constantly.
How will they do this exactly? Well, unlike the cards we use now that have a tiny rectangle on the back with three secret numbers, Oberthur has proposed a solution: they want to substitute this rectangle with a small screen that changes the numbers every hour. At first glance, the credit cards are exactly the same, but instead of the security code changing every three years, the numbers change every hour.
This means that the cybercriminal won’t be able to steal a dime: by the time a phishing attack is completed and the data is stolen, the screen will have changed and the whole scheme will be a complete waste of time for the criminal.
It may be inconvenient for your employees to use these cards because they will no longer be able to memorize the security code on the back. But really, who cares? They will have to check the security code every time they use it, but this smallest effort could also bring them the most security benefits in your company.
Mike Mimoso and Chris Brook recap the news of the week, including a Bitcoin phishing campaign, the Kaspersky Lab ransomware report, misconfigured email servers, and a decline in Angler exploit kit traffic.
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