![[Heads-up] Ransomware attack forces Arkansas CEO to fire 300 employees days before Christmas](https://i0.wp.com/www.optricsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/board-895399_1920.jpg?fit=600%2C376&ssl=1)
The chief executive officer of a telemarketing company in Sherwood, Arkansas has let go 300 employees after the company failed to recover from a ransomware infection a few months back. In a deeply apologetic letter to employees, The Heritage Company CEO Sandra Franecke said two months ago their servers were attacked by hackers who demanded […]
![[NEW RISK] The MAZE Ransomware Gang Outs Their Victims On A Public Web Site](https://i0.wp.com/www.optricsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/maze-1804496_1920.jpg?fit=600%2C320&ssl=1)
[NEW RISK] The MAZE Ransomware Gang Outs Their Victims On A Public Web Site
In a continuing escalation of its extortion tactics, independent security researcher, Brian Krebs reported on Krebsonsecurity.com that the criminals behind the MAZE-RANSOMWAREMAZE Ransomware gang just created a publicly viewable web site listing 8 victims and a limited amount of selected data. MAZE probably hopes that by increasing psychological extortion pressure they will squeeze current victims […]
Financial Advisor Fined After Falling for BEC Scam
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined and temporarily suspended a financial advisor working for UBS after he was tricked into transferring $511,870 from a client’s account in a CEO fraud scam, according to FinancialAdvisorIQ. A hacker used social engineering to access the client’s account and asked the advisor, William Darby, to move the money […]
Whaling: Like Phishing, but After Bigger Game
Organizations have to acknowledge their responsibility for ensuring their employees are able to recognize targeted phishing attacks, according to James McGachie, Legal Director of DLA Piper Scotland. Writing in The Herald, McGachie explains that sophisticated spear phishing attacks designed to steal large amounts of money (also known as “whaling”), should be of special concern to […]
How Phishing is Evolving
Attackers are always using new tactics to stay ahead of defenders, and Microsoft’s Office 365 Threat Research Team describes three noteworthy phishing techniques they’ve observed in 2019. The first was the use of hijacked search results to redirect users to malicious sites. Attackers used a traffic generator to artificially push a baited website to the […]
Money Mules and Evil Corp
Last week we reported that the U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments filed charges against and placed sanctions on the members of “Evil Corp.,” the criminal group behind the Dridex malware. Brian Krebs offers a detailed look at how Evil Corp. operates, and particularly at their use of money mules to launder criminally obtained funds. Krebs […]
1000+ Schools Hit By Ransomware Fueled by October Attack Wave
October was a busy month for the bad guys who targeted school districts and students across the USA in a wave of new ransomware attacks. A report released by Armor, a global security solutions provider, noted a substantial rise in ransomware attacks against schools (and school districts) since October 2019. “The report identified 11 new […]
Royal Mail Scam: Sorry, You Haven’t in Fact Won that iPhone 11 Pro
An SMS phishing scam is targeting people in the UK with fake notifications that appear to come from the Royal Mail postal service, The Sun reports. The messages are personalized, and they address each recipient by their real name, informing them that they’ve been selected to receive a free iPhone 11 Pro. In order to […]
Dancing with Hackers
Dancing with the Stars pro Witney Carson announced on Twitter that her Facebook account had been hacked. Unknown miscreants gained control of Carson’s Facebook through a unique phishing technique and proceeded to upload spamming material to not only her page, but resharing items to other celebrity pages. Now, there are two questions that immediately come […]
ReVil Ransomware Threatens to Squeeze Their Victims with Public Exposure of Data
The REvil Ransomware crew are getting ready to put more pressure on their ransomware victims to pay up by threatening to release data if the ransom isn’t paid. Our friends at Bleepingcomputer report that the REvil group is threatening to use exfiltrated data obtained before the encryption process to increase pressure on victims to pay […]