Security News
In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, one method stands out for its chilling effectiveness – social engineering. But why does it work so well? The answer lies in the intricate dance...
Sponsored Post Ransomware can hit any organization at any time, and hackers are proving adept at social engineering techniques to gain access to sensitive data in any way they can. Reports suggest the attack will cause an estimated US$100m hit to its revenue after the hotel and gambling firm was forced to shut down its IT systems to contain the damage after customer contact information, gender, date of birth, social security, passport and driver's license numbers were stolen.
Experts from security firm F5 have argued that cyber criminals are unlikely to send new armies of generative AI-driven bots into battle with enterprise security defences in the near future because proven social engineering attack methods will be easier to mount using generative AI. The release of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have caused widespread fears that democratization of powerful large language models could help bad actors around the world supercharge their efforts to hack businesses and steal or hold sensitive data hostage. F5, a multicloud security and application delivery provider, tells TechRepublic that generative AI will result in a growth in social engineering attack volumes and capacity in Australia, as threat actors deliver a higher volume of better quality attacks to trick IT gatekeepers.
Social engineering is a manipulative technique used by individuals or groups to deceive or manipulate others into divulging confidential or sensitive information, performing actions, or making decisions that are not in their best interest. It often involves exploiting human psychology and trust to gain access to information, systems, or physical spaces.
Deepfake videos use AI and deep learning techniques to create highly realistic but fake or fabricated content. The most effective evaluation of deepfake technology can be made when watching videos in which the "Deepfaked" person is a celebrity or individual whom the viewer is visually familiar with.
Identity services provider Okta on Friday warned of social engineering attacks orchestrated by threat actors to obtain elevated administrator permissions. "In recent weeks, multiple US-based Okta customers have reported a consistent pattern of social engineering attacks against IT service desk personnel, in which the caller's strategy was to convince service desk personnel to reset all multi-factor authentication factors enrolled by highly privileged users," the company said.
A threat actor known as Muddled Libra is targeting the business process outsourcing industry with persistent attacks that leverage advanced social engineering ploys to gain initial access. "The attack style defining Muddled Libra appeared on the cybersecurity radar in late 2022 with the release of the 0ktapus phishing kit, which offered a prebuilt hosting framework and bundled templates," Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 said in a technical report.
The North Korean nation-state threat actor known as Kimsuky has been linked to a social engineering campaign targeting experts in North Korean affairs with the goal of stealing Google credentials and delivering reconnaissance malware. "Further, Kimsuky's objective extends to the theft of subscription credentials from NK News," cybersecurity firm SentinelOne said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
The spoofed email is cleverly crafted to look as legitimate as possible: it contains the Zelle logo, grammatically correct text, and an authentic link to the firm's web page at the bottom of the email, in the "Security and privacy" footer. What distinguishes this malicious email from legitimate ones is the sender's email address, which is obviously not related to Zelle.
New research from NCC Group and Abnormal Security shows clouds and a bit of silver to line them: Ransomware attacks declined last year, but business email compromises increased - massively for smaller businesses - and a third of toxic emails got through their human gateways. According to risk management firm NCC Group, there was a 5% drop in ransomware attacks last year - from 2,667 attacks in 2021 to 2,531 attacks in 2022 - although between February and April there was an uptick due to LockBit activity during the Russia-Ukraine war.