Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

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Customers of Cryptocurrency FTX are Target of Phishing Emails

Aug 31, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Customers of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX are already receiving phishing emails following a breach of personal data held by several crypto companies, CoinDesk reports. The customer data was leaked after a T-Mobile employee fell for a SIM swapping attack and granted a threat actor access to an account belonging to an employee of financial advisory firm Kroll. Kroll served as the claims agent in the bankruptcies of FTX, Genesis, and BlockFI, so the attacker was able to steal the data from Kroll.
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Labor Day Alert: Mobile Phishing Attacks on the Rise for Remote Employees

Aug 31, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
A recent survey by Lookout, Inc. warns for a specific attack vector as Labor Day approaches. The study shows that 85% of enterprise employees capable of remote work plan to do so on Friday, September 1, primarily using mobile devices. This creates an ideal environment for hackers to launch targeted phishing attacks. The risk is exacerbated by the fact that 80% of respondents admit to being more relaxed and distracted when working remotely on Fridays during the summer.
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Quishing: QR Codes as Phishbait

Aug 30, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Researchers at Trustwave are tracking an increase in the use of QR codes to spread phishing links. “Being open-source, QR code generators have become accessible to anyone with access to the internet,” the researchers write. “The increased availability and flexibility of QR codes makes them the perfect tools for cybercriminals to further disguise their malicious links and evade anti-spam filters.” The QR codes often arrive in the form of phony multi-factor authentication emails.
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Top 10 Trends in Business Email Compromise for 2023

Aug 28, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Researchers at Trustwave have published a report outlining trends in business email compromise (BEC) attacks, finding that these attacks spiked in February of 2023. “For the first quarter of the year, we saw a 25% increase in unique attacks compared to the last quarter of 2022,” the researchers write. “February accounted for the highest volume of BEC emails in the first half of the year. January is the second most active month for BEC.
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Use KnowBe4's New Callback Phishing Feature to Boost Your Organization's Security Awareness

Aug 25, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Callback phishing isn't your typical email scam. Instead of the usual suspects with bad grammar and obvious malicious links, these attacks play mind games. They set up a multi-layered trap using some smooth-talking tactics to get you to dial a fake number and spill your sensitive info.
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Duolingo Users Should Be on the Lookout for Targeted Phishing Attacks

Aug 24, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Users of the language learning app Duolingo should be wary of targeted phishing attacks following a recent data leak, according to Anthony Spadafora at Tom’s Guide. Criminals scraped the names and email addresses of 2.6 million Duolingo users earlier this year, and are now selling the entire dataset on underground forums for approximately $2.13.
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Phishing Campaigns Targeting Microsoft Login Credentials Jump an Unprecedented 6100%

Aug 23, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Monitoring of traffic to phishing pages hosted on the free hosting service Cloudflare R2 show an unheard of spike of 6100%, many going undetected by many security solutions due to the evasive techniques used. I can’t remember a time when I’ve covered a story and the reported increases were as large as the recent spike in malicious network traffic observed by Netskope.
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Data Breaches Involving Social Engineering Attacks Take Longer to Identify and Contain

Aug 23, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Continuing coverage of IBM’s recently-released Cost of a Data Breach report, we focus on the impact attacks involving social engineering have on data breach costs. There are two reports every year that we cover on this blog that you should be reading – Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report and IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report. Each of these reports has been published for years, providing insight into how the state of data breaches are changing.
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LinkedIn Deception: How a Chinese Spy Tricked Thousands of UK Officials

Aug 23, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
In last few years, cyber espionage has taken a new form. A recent investigation by The Times has unveiled a Chinese intelligence officer's extensive use of LinkedIn to target UK officials. Operating under the alias "Robin Zhang," this spy has been luring thousands of officials, scientists, and academics to hand over state secrets and sensitive technology information.
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Phishing Tops the List as the Most Costly Initial Attack Vector in Data Breaches

Aug 23, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
After you come to grips with the massive average cost of a data breach to an enterprise organization measured in the millions, it’s time to look at the factors that increase – and lower – that cost. According to IBM’s recently-released 18th edition of their Cost of a Data Breach Report, we find that this year’s average cost is $4.45 million. That’s a staggering number, but what about the contributing factors?
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[Eye-Opening] Increase of Phishing Attacks in Australia Should Alarm Organizations

Aug 21, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Phishing attacks are on the rise in Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. “The latest figures reveal phishing is a practice that is only becoming more and more widespread,” the ABC says.“Phishing was the most reported scam to Scamwatch in 2022, with the government website recording 74,573 complaints — a 4.6 per cent increase on the previous year.
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Ransomware's Paradox: Why Falling Monetization Rates Are Accompanied by Soaring Ransom Payments - A Must-Read Analysis.

Aug 16, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Grab a cup of coffee, and let's talk about something that's been making waves in the cybersecurity world: ransomware. You've probably heard about the alarming rise in ransom payments, but did you know that ransom monetization rates have actually fallen to a record low? It's a complex and evolving landscape, and we're here to break down the recent very interesting Coveware report for you.
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Social Media Platforms Become Half of all Phishing Attack Targets

Aug 16, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Social platforms are the current favorite target of cybercriminals, displacing financial institutions, providing cybercriminals with credentials to be used as launch points for further phishing campaigns. Most cyber attacks we read about seem to involve an organization that was attacked because it was perceived to have a lot of money that could be parted with via ransomware, extortion, digital fraud, etc.
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Ransomware Attacks Surge as Generative AI Becomes a Commodity Tool in the Threat Actor's Arsenal

Aug 16, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
According to a new report, cybercriminals are making full use of AI to create more convincing phishing emails, generating malware, and more to increase the chances of ransomware attack success. I remember when the news of ChatGPT hit social media – it was everywhere. And, quickly, there were incredible amounts of content providing insight into how to make use of the AI tool to make money.
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Cybercriminals May Already Have Hacked Your LinkedIn Account

Aug 16, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
New reports show many LinkedIn users have reported complaints about accounts being taken over by bad actors. In a statement from Cyberint researcher Coral Tayar, "Some have even been pressured into paying a ransom to regain control or faced with the permanent deletion of their accounts," The reported complaints are on other social media forum platforms such as Reddit, Microsoft, and X with several users expressing frustration due to the lack of response from their support team.
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Ransomware Distributed by Fake Tripadvisor Reviews

Aug 15, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
The Knight ransomware-as-a-service offering (formerly known as “Cyclops”) is using phony TripAdvisor complaints to deliver its malware, BleepingComputer reports. “A newer version of this campaign spotted and analyzed by BleepingComputer now includes an HTML attachment named 'TripAdvisor-Complaint-.PDF.htm,’” BleepingComputer says.
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Beware of Clickbait PDF Phishing Attacks Lurking in Search Results

Aug 14, 2023 By Martin Kraemer In KnowBe4
We previously reported independently on PDF-based phishing attacks skyrocketing and the rise of SEO attacks. A recent research study found that the combination of both is quite common. Most worryingly, PDF-based SEO attacks are poorly detected by common defense mechanisms such as blocklists, ad blockers or even crowdsourced antivirus services VirusTotal. PDF-based attacks can be anything from a website embedded in a PDF file to an email.
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AI's Role in the Next Financial Crisis: A Warning from SEC Chair Gary Gensler

Aug 14, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
TL;DR - The future of finance is intertwined with artificial intelligence (AI), and according to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, it's not all positive. In fact, Gensler warns in a 2020 paper —when he was still at MIT—that AI could be at the heart of the next financial crisis, and regulators might be powerless to prevent it. AI's Black Box Dilemma: AI-powered "black box" trading algorithms are a significant concern.
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Gootloader Malware Uses Social Engineering to Target Law Firms (or their Clients)

Aug 14, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Law firms are being targeted by a large number of social engineering attacks involving the Gootloader malware delivery tool, according to researchers at Trustwave. “Recently, we’ve seen a noticeable surge in malware cases linked to a malicious payload delivery system known as Gootloader,” the researchers write. “The group behind this malware is believed to operate a malware-as-a-service operation, exclusively providing a malware delivery service for other threat actors.
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Comcast: 9 out of 10 Attempts to Breach Customer Networks Start with a Phish

Aug 11, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
The latest data from Comcast Business’ analysis of over 23.5 billion cyber attacks on their business customers shows the importance and role of phishing in attacks. Over the years there has been a consistent mantra, where everyone agrees that “90-something” percent of cyber attacks start with phishing. There have been plenty of sources that corroborate this using percentages in the 90th percentile, but the overall message is phishing is your greatest Initial Access tactic.
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Number of Named Ransomware Victim Organizations Jumps 64% in One Quarter

Aug 11, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
The second quarter of this year has become the focus of some new firsts in ransomware attacks, according to new data from cybersecurity vendor Reliaquest. None of us want to see ransomware continue “up and to the right” on a chart. But it appears that this is the case, according to Reliaquest’s Ransomware Report: Q2 2023. In the report, we find that the number of ransomware victim organizations named on the dark web jumped from 838 in Q1 of 2023 to 1,378 in Q2 – a 64.4% increase.
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Salesforce Becomes the Latest Platform to Unwittingly Aid Phishing Scammers

Aug 11, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Cybercriminals used the legitimacy of Salesforce’s email gateway to bypass security scanners and target Meta customers in an effort to steal Facebook credentials. One of the initial challenges any phishing attack has is to make it past security measures designed to scan and identify malicious emails. One such way is to misuse a legitimate well-known platform’s outbound sending of emails.
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The Dark Side of AI: Unmasking its Threats

Aug 11, 2023 By KnowBe4 In KnowBe4
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has come roaring to the forefront of today’s technology landscape. It has revolutionized industries and will modernize careers, bringing numerous benefits and advancements to our daily lives. However, it is crucial to recognize that AI also introduces unseen impacts that must be understood and addressed for your employees and your organization as a whole. Watch James McQuiggan, Security Awareness Advocate at KnowBe4, in this thought-provoking on-demand webinar where he’ll discuss the unforeseen threats of AI and how to protect your network.
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AI's Role in Cybersecurity: Black Hat USA 2023 Reveals How Large Language Models Are Shaping the Future of Phishing Attacks and Defense

Aug 10, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
At Black Hat USA 2023, a session led by a team of security researchers, including Fredrik Heiding, Bruce Schneier, Arun Vishwanath, and Jeremy Bernstein, unveiled an intriguing experiment. They tested large language models (LLMs) to see how they performed in both writing convincing phishing emails and detecting them. This is the PDF technical paper.
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Record ¥3 bil stolen via phishing in Japan in 1st half of 2023

Aug 9, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
A record 2,322 scams in Japan to steal internet banking IDs and passwords have resulted in unauthorized money transfers totaling a record of around 3 billion yen ($21 million) in the first half of this year, a report by the National Police Agency showed Tuesday. The number of cases mainly involving phishing this year has already surpassed the annual total of any previous year, with the financial loss approaching the record high of 3.07 billion yen set in 2015, according to the agency.
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New PCI Password Requirements Could Be the Impetus for Credential Harvesting Scams

Aug 9, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
As the retirement countdown for the current version of PCI is now less than six months, a new standard for password length, complexity, and change frequency may create some risk. Valid credentials have become a very hot item, as threat actors realize the low risk and high value of simply becoming an Initial Access Broker (rather than performing an entire cyber attack themselves).
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Wordfence Becomes the Latest Brand to be Impersonated Putting 800 Million Sites at Risk

Aug 9, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
With its wide use and trusted state among Wordpress developers and website admins, a new campaign impersonating the website security brand could put hundreds of millions of websites at risk. Today, it's estimated there are over 810 million websites that run on Wordpress. One of Wordpress’ most used plugins is Wordfence – a security platform made specifically for the website platform.
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Most Organizations Using Weak Multifactor Authentication

Aug 8, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Most organizations are still using weak forms of multi-factor authentication (MFA), a survey by Nok Nok has found. These forms of MFA can be bypassed if an employee falls for a social engineering attack. “72% of organizations still use phishable MFA factors for their customer-facing applications,” the researchers write. “The cost and risk of lost or stolen data, business, and funds from compromised accounts is motivating organizations to make MFA mandatory for their customers.
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KnowBe4's Interactive Phishing Analysis Center: Keep Your Finger On The Pulse

Aug 8, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
As a security awareness practitioner, keeping your pulse on industry - and geographical - benchmarking data and best practices is always a good way to measure your organization’s security awareness success. That’s why KnowBe4 has launched its Phishing Benchmarking Analysis Center. It’s intended as a fun, interactive digital hub that allows you to slice and dice security awareness benchmarking data from across various industries and geographical regions.
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5 Intriguing Ways AI Is Changing the Landscape of Cyber Attacks

Aug 8, 2023 By James McQuiggan In KnowBe4
In today's world, cybercriminals are learning to harness the power of AI. Cybersecurity professionals must be prepared for the current threats of zero days, insider threats, and supply chain, but now add in Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Generative AI. AI can revolutionize industries, but cybersecurity leaders and practitioners should be mindful of its capabilities and ensure it is used effectively.
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[New Product] Supercharge Your Anti-Phishing Defense with KnowBe4's PhishER Plus!

Aug 7, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Staying one step ahead of cybercriminals is absolutely vital in today’s threat landscape. That's why we're thrilled to introduce PhishER Plus, a revolutionary product from KnowBe4 that takes your anti-phishing defense to a whole new level. Phishing attacks remain the top cyberthreat out there. It's tough to keep up with the ever-evolving techniques of bad actors.
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Phishing Attacks Continue to Use Attachments as HTML Files Containing Java Dominate

Aug 7, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
As traditional phishing attack attachment types like Office documents dwindle in use, threat actors look for new effective ways to use email as a delivery medium to launch an attack. We’ve seen email attachments being used in cyberattacks for decades now, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone working in an office that a strange attachment type may be malicious. And yet, this trend continues, despite threat actors changing which types of attachments to use.
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Vendor Email Compromise Attacks Use the Same Playbook for Multiple Attacks

Aug 7, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Seeking very large paydays, Vendor Email Compromise (VEC) threat actors are finding out what works and repurposing their content and processes to increase chances of seeing a massive payout. VEC is a form of Business Email Compromise (BEC) where an email account isn’t just impersonated (e.g., using someone’s name, a lookalike domain, etc.) but actually compromising credentials and taking over an account of someone within an organization.
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Data Theft Extortion Attacks Rise 25 Percent in Just One Quarter and Take Top Attack Spot

Aug 7, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
A recap of Q2 from Cisco Talos’ incident response services provides insight into exactly what kinds of attacks are being seen in the field, and what kinds of attacks you need to be protecting against. While I love covering industry reports here, I also love to see practical experiences from the field summarized into trends. And that’s exactly what we find with Cisco Talos Incident Response’s Incident Response trends Q2 2023 recap.
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GitHub Warns of Social Engineering Campaign Targeting Employees in the Technology Industry

Aug 7, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
A few weeks ago, GitHub posted on their blog a recent security alert that should have any organization in the tech industry worried. GitHub identified a social engineering campaign that is targeting personal accounts of employees that work for technology firms. This campaign is using a combination of repository invites and malicious npm package dependencies to strike.
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New AI Bot FraudGPT Hits the Dark Web to Aid Advanced Cybercriminals

Aug 6, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Assisting with the creation of spear phishing emails, cracking tools and verifying stolen credit cards, the existence of FraudGPT will only accelerate the frequency and efficiency of attacks. When ChatGPT became available to the public, I warned about its misuse by cybercriminals. Because of the existence of “ethical guardrails” built into tools like ChatGPT, there’s only so far a cybercriminal can use the platform.
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Boarding Pass Selfies and Cybersecurity Don't Mix

Aug 4, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
There is no such thing as a vacation for cybercriminals. We recently released our top summer cybersecurity travel tips to help keep you safe. Earlier this year, we posted about travel-themed phishing attacks, and Forbes just posted a great reminder about the dangers of sharing your boarding pass on social media. Read below for their advice.
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Advanced Phishing Campaign Exploits 3rd Parties

Aug 3, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Researchers at BlueVoyant warn that attackers are increasingly adding an extra step to their phishing campaigns, impersonating third-parties to lend credibility to the scams. “Third-party phishing sites…will include some characteristics of the original flow, with an added step – the initial impersonation that establishes credibility to the end user is a service that is not connected to the targeted organization,” the researchers write.
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Bad Actor Uses Fake Android Chat to Install Malware

Aug 2, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Researchers at CYFIRMA warn that the Bahamut threat actor is using a malicious Android app to deliver malware. “The suspected Android malware, known initially as ‘CoverIm’ was delivered to victims via WhatsApp, and was found to be disguised as a dummy chatting application named ‘SafeChat,’” the researchers write.
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KnowBe4 Chooses Drata as Our Exclusive GRC Partner

Aug 2, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Drata is KnowBe4’s preferred compliance automation platform for KnowBe4 customers. We have some big news. KnowBe4 has selected Drata as our exclusive GRC partner. What does that mean? As we transition KnowBe4 Compliance Manager (KCM) offering to a support-only model, we are encouraging all our current users to migrate to Drata for their compliance automation needs. After an exhaustive assessment of vendors in the market, we chose Drata for a few reasons. Here's what made Drata different.
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A Long-Running Credential Phishing Expedition

Aug 1, 2023 By Stu Sjouwerman In KnowBe4
Researchers at Akamai describe a credential phishing campaign that’s been running since at least March 2022. Due to the volume of traffic to the phishing sites, the researchers estimate that the attackers are raking in up to $150,000 per year by selling the stolen credentials. “This ongoing research led to the discovery of multiple templated sites used as front-ends for the scam infrastructure that have been tied to more than 40,000 malicious routing domains,” the researchers write.
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