Over the years criminals occasionally contact me to tell me about their exploits and often ask how they can get into the “security awareness” business. Everyone wants to be a Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can movie). These crimes are often sociopaths and incapable of functioning normally without eventually resorting to the easy money…
Maybe company executives who don’t engage in real world security awareness training should suffer the consequences for their insufficiency. An excellent Help Net Security article is titled “What CISOs need to keep CEOs (and themselves) out of jail” discusses many of the fundamentals of cyber security, what security leaders should be doing, but aren’t doing,…
A long-running and large-scale internet-based fraud scheme netted around $50 million from dozens of investors over an eight-year period. The perpetrators created 150 fake sites that targeted investors. These sites would tell the investors that they had multiple investment opportunities that they should take. According to the court documents, these websites would have higher than normal rates…
Sextortion is EVERYONES PROBLEM. This isn’t just a children and teens thing, it’s adults too. The FBI says year over year this crime is increasing. And it’s affecting families, their livelihoods, and their businesses. Make no mistake, Sextortion affects you, our government, your organization, its security, your employees, their productivity, whether or not they may…
The primary intention behind artificial intelligence (AI) generated spam on social media appears to be financial gain through deceptive means. Facebook algorithms are suggesting users to visit, view and like pages that are 100% artificially intelligent generated photos of people, places, and things that are simply not real. The content includes too good to be…
K.I.S.S.I.N.G. First came love, then came marriage, then came the baby in the baby carriage! Sucking his thumb, wetting his pants, doing the hula – hula dance! And the BABY is a Boy! The Yahoo Boys. The Yahoo Boys are a notorious group of cyber criminals operating out of West Africa, primarily Nigeria. While most…
It’s everyone. (It’s you too. Just read.) Security goes against our core beliefs. Security is not natural, it’s not normal, it means that we don’t trust others. However, we trust by default. Not trusting others is actually a learned behavior. Security means that you are aware that there are others out there that may choose…
The proliferation of AI technologies like voice cloning and caller ID spoofing has opened up new avenues for fraudsters to exploit. By mimicking voices and masking their true caller identities, scammers can launch highly convincing social engineering attacks over the phone. This potent combination poses serious risks to individuals and organizations alike. However, we aren’t…
Protecting one’s data and devices on public Wi-Fi goes beyond protecting oneself on just the Wi-Fi aspect. Cyber security is holistic in its nature, meaning the devices hardware, software, and various forms of access control all need consideration. I hear all the time that criminal hackers are so “sophisticated”. I suppose they are, but what…
Lets agree on this: Most of what’s written below will NEVER happen to you. Why? Because you are a subscriber to this newsletter and your propensity to consume security related content keeps you current on fraud prevention tactics. So, this means you have a responsibility as a security conscious citizen to spread the prevention message…
