Scams use deception to steal money, credentials, or sensitive data, making them a cybersecurity risk for individuals and organizations.
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Scams are deceptive schemes intended to make people surrender money, credentials, sensitive information, or access. In information security, they commonly use phishing messages, impersonation, fraudulent websites, business-email compromise, fake technical support, or malicious attachments. Their defining feature is manipulation: the attacker creates a credible pretext and pressures the target to act before verifying the request.
Security teams should treat scams as an attack surface spanning email, messaging, telephone calls, social media, and payment workflows. Material risks include account takeover through stolen credentials, unauthorized payments, disclosure of personal or company data, and malware execution from deceptive content. Useful controls include phishing-resistant authentication, secure payment-change procedures with independent verification, filtering and domain protections, user training focused on reporting, and rapid review of suspicious messages or transactions. Incident handling may require revoking sessions, resetting credentials, contacting financial institutions, preserving evidence, and notifying affected parties where applicable.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns about a significant rise in gambling-like online job scams, known as "task scams," that draw people into earning cash through repetitive tasks, with the promises of earning more if they deposit their own money. [...]
DoJ thinks it's found the folks that ran it, and some of the 'IT warriors' sent out to fleece employers North Korea's fake IT worker scams netted the hermit kingdom $88 million over six years, according to the US Department of Justice, which thinks it's found the people who run them.…
Also, Australian Fines Kraken AU$8 million Over BreachesThis week, scammers targeted crypto workers with fake meeting apps, Australia fined Kraken crypto exchange operator Bit Trade and a Los Angeles federal court ordered five individuals to pay $5 million. Polish police detained a Russian former exchange operator and FTX debtors clawed back more cash.
DOJ Indicts North Korean IT Workers for Using Remote Jobs to Fund Weapons ProgramsU.S. federal prosecutors indicted 14 North Koreans for a long-running IT scam generating $88 million by exploiting remote work with U.S. firms, a scheme prosecutors say is tied to DPRK-controlled companies that fund weapons programs through stolen identities, data theft and extortion.
The Spanish police, working with colleagues in Peru, conducted a simultaneous crackdown on a large-scale voice phishing (vishing) scam ring in the two countries, arresting 83 individuals. [...]
Fraudsters in UAE posed as Dubai Police, targeting citizens with fake fines via calls, emails and SMS
Cybersecurity researchers have shed light on a sophisticated mobile phishing (aka mishing) campaign that's designed to distribute an updated version of the Antidot banking trojan
This week’s cyber world is like a big spy movie. Hackers are breaking into other hackers’ setups, sneaky malware is hiding in popular software, and AI-powered scams are tricking even the smartest of us. On the other side, the good guys are busting secret online markets and kicking out shady chat rooms, while big companies rush to fix new security holes before attackers can jump in
CERT-UA has issued a warning about phishing emails targeting Ukrainian defense companies and security forces