In the past, I’ve revealed that one evasion technique cybercriminals use to avoid being blocked by email security technologies, is using legitimate (Microsoft) websites. This week Threatpost.com shared this new interesting twist: attackers are using YouTube and redirect features to get you to click on malicious links. Redirector URLs are commonly used by legitimate organizations …Read more
Criminals are no different from the rest of us, at least when it comes to what’s top of mind. They’re thinking about whatever’s in the news. For the last few months, that’s been Coronavirus. Hackers always play on the victim’s curiosity, fear or anxiety, and COVID-19, by nature, checks all those boxes. Communities around the …Read more
Today’s phish-of-the-week is nothing special, but there are two lessons to learn. At first glance, it’s a very plain and straightforward phishing email (Figure 1) attempting to steal user credentials by portraying itself as a closing document. Nothing out of the ordinary, yet it came with a lot of other emails and with perfect timing …Read more
One email, four different attack vectors. I’ve covered the different elements in the past, but it was interesting to see multiple techniques combined. The email (1) immediately meets the definition of spam/phish: obscure sender, no recipient, no greeting and a real estate-relevant attachment name. The first red flag is the attachment extension. Html is a …Read more
Here’s on old trick with a new twist. We’ve talked about how cybercriminals are abusing encrypted email communications. They’ve been adding headers and footers that include “encrypted email” to try and convince you that the message is trustworthy. Most of them include a (malicious) link within the instructions. Recently, for the first time, we saw …Read more
Cybercriminals follow our every move. With every countermeasure we put in place, they create a workaround shortly thereafter. This week I picked an interesting email to demo. At first glance, nothing is out of the ordinary in this email. It meets all the qualifications of a typical spam or phishing email: unrecognized sender, no recipient …Read more
Apple released iOS 13 for iPhone Thursday, September 27. Here are a few highlights you were waiting for. Better performance Dark mode – This is an alternative color scheme designed to reduce eye strain. It can be triggered manually or be set up to adjust on a schedule (dusk-to-dawn, for example). Many app developers have …Read more
CD. Two simple letters define the phishing flavor of the week. Specifically, we’re talking about subject lines that contain CD. We continue to see more and more targeted (spear) phishing attacks that combine resonating subject lines with names of banks, lenders, title companies and other recognizable partners. Of the 58 reports of emails with CD …Read more
This week’s example of a phishing email is nothing out of the ordinary. It’s another easy-to-spot, poorly written email used to phish for personal information. Most of you who received it either discarded or reported it already. Still, the sender email caught my attention and I thought it was a good time to explain how …Read more
In previous posts, we’ve talked about free email platforms (Gmail, Outlook), multi-factor authentication, spoofed sender email addresses and malicious websites that steal credentials. Those are all important, but it’s time to add to your phishing tool belt. The phish we received this week (1) is as authentic as it gets. It came from joann@jardinjewelry.com, who …Read more