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Beware of Clickbait PDF Phishing Attacks Lurking in Search Results

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.

Number of Named Ransomware Victim Organizations Jumps 64% in One Quarter

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.

Salesforce Becomes the Latest Platform to Unwittingly Aid Phishing Scammers

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.

Comcast: 9 out of 10 Attempts to Breach Customer Networks Start with a Phish

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.

AI's Role in Cybersecurity: Black Hat USA 2023 Reveals How Large Language Models Are Shaping the Future of Phishing Attacks and Defense

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.

Record ¥3 bil stolen via phishing in Japan in 1st half of 2023

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.

New PCI Password Requirements Could Be the Impetus for Credential Harvesting Scams

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).