Displaying items by tag: phishing attacks

COMPANY NEWS: Bitdefender's security researchers have identified a large-scale ad fraud campaign that deployed hundreds of malicious apps in the Google Play Store, resulting in more than 60 million downloads total. The apps display out-of-context ads and even try to persuade victims to give away credentials and credit card information in phishing attacks.

Key findings

• Barracuda threat researchers have identified evolving tactics being used by cybercriminals in targeted sextortion scams.
• Criminals are now frequently using victims’ addresses and photos of their homes to better personalize sextortion phishing attacks and increase the pressure to pay.
• Extortion demands are increasing from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and criminals are making it easier for victims to pay with quick response (QR) codes.

Barracuda threat intelligence researchers have detected more than half a million phishing emails with quick response (QR) codes embedded in PDF documents.
QR codes that lead to phishing websites are now being included in PDF documents and attached to emails — versus being included in the emails themselves.
The attacks are designed to capture login credentials for compromise.

GUEST INTERVIEW: iTWire talks to Geoff Schomburgk, Vice President, Asia Pacific & Japan at Yubico, about stopping your users being the targets of phishing attacks.

GUEST OPINION: This week’s inquiry into the use of Deep Fakes in Australian schools, combined with the increasing use of Deep Fakes by political figures both in Australia and abroad, are worrisome developments. It signals we are in a rapidly evolving arms race to research and develop effective and reliable deep fake detection tools.

There has been an increase in AI-driven phishing attacks in Australia with research revealing that Australia is within the top 10 countries alongside US, UK, India and Germany targeted by phishing scams.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of employees were disciplined, 27% voluntarily left the organisation and 39% were fired following their involvement with a phishing incident, according to research undertaken by threat intelligence company Egress.