Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Google has recently introduced a set of new top-level domains: .dad, .esq, .prof, .phd, .nexus, .foo, .zip and.mov. They’re now available for purchase, and it’s the last two that are attracting attention due to the risk of abuse in phishing attacks. WIRED describes why.zip and.mov have raised concerns. “The two stand out because they are also common file extension names. The former, .zip, is ubiquitous for data compression, while.mov is a video format developed by Apple.

One of KnowBe4's long-term employees just send me a picture this morning of a postcard that sure looks like it's phishing, the good old-fashioned way: snail mail! Here is the picture and you tell me what all the red flags are! The domain does not work of course. The email seems to have disappeared into the bitbucket. For many obvious reasons i have not tried the QR code since I do not have a bulletproof sandbox installed on my smartphone where I can detonate malware. :-D.

The spread of the remote workforce and the growth of digital transformation has exponentiated the number of login-based attack vectors. While multi-factor authentication (MFA) generally protects against common methods of gaining unauthorized account access, not all multi-factor authentication methods can defend against sophisticated attacks. To achieve full zero-trust access, MFA is being replaced by phishing-resistant MFA and the standards that define it.

This new phishing toolkit is rising in popularity for its effective realism in impersonating not just Microsoft 365, but the victim organization as well. Security researchers at Cisco Talos have identified a new Microsoft 365 toolkit that actually creates a realistic login experience for the victim user, making it more dangerous to organizations.

On Wednesday, May 3, 2023, Google introduced eight new top-level domains (TLD) available for purchase and that could be used with websites and/or email addresses. From these eight new TLD’s, one that stands out as a potential security risk is.zip. The.zip TLD is concerning since it is also used as an extension of files commonly shared over the internet. With the inclusion of.zip as a domain, email clients and web platforms will now accept URLs disguised as filenames with.zip extensions.

A new report covering 13 global markets highlights phishing prevalence and its role in cyber attacks when compared to other types of attacks. It’s difficult for me not to stand on my “phishing is a problem” soapbox when there exists stories and reports demonstrating that phishing continues to dominate as a security problem that isn’t being properly addressed.

The days of massive server rooms and having every employee all under one roof may seem like they are gone forever, but for a great many organizations the on-premise work environment is still here and unlikely to be pushed out of service any time soon. Let’s start off with a quick reminder on the importance of security an email system. Email remains the number one attack vector favored by threat actors because it involves humans, who can be a weak link in any security system.

The latest Phishing Activity Trends Report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) shows an unrelenting upward trend in the number of phishing attacks per quarter. Despite the alarm that the growth in the number of phishing attacks should generate, this report sheds some light on what seems to be working for cybercriminals if you dig a little deeper. According to the report.

Netskope Threat Labs is tracking phishing campaigns abusing InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to deliver their payloads. From March 1 to April 30, Netskope Threat Labs has seen a 7x increase in traffic to IPFS phishing pages. The attacks have been targeting victims mainly in North America and Asia Pacific across different segments, led by the financial services, banking, and technology sectors. IPFS was first launched in 2014 and has been steadily increasing in popularity since.

The US Federal Trade Commission has issued an alert warning of phishing campaigns that are impersonating PayPal and the MetaMask cryptowallet. “If you got an email that seems to be from MetaMask or PayPal, stop,” the FTC says. “They’re phishing scams. The MetaMask fake says your cryptocurrency wallet is blocked. And, if you don’t act fast, click a link, and update your wallet, they say your crypto will be lost.