Two Evil Schemes Merged

In the W-2 phishing scam, the bad guy sends an email pretending to be an executive requesting the firm's payroll tax data. In the business email compromise, the bad guy sends an email pretending to be an executive sending wire transfer instructions. The IRS is warning about a new scam that combines the W-2 scam and the business email compromise into a merged scam. According to KrebsOnSecurity: “This is one of the most dangerous email phishing scams we’ve seen in a long time,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “Although not tax related, the wire transfer scam is being coupled with [...]

2017-02-03T15:44:35-05:00February 3rd, 2017|Cybersecurity - General, Phishing, SP Guard|

$1 Trillion Email Cyberattack

Lloyd’s of London (the insurance company) and the University of Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies did a study estimating the losses that could result from a cyberattack on the power generation system of the United States. The study estimates that the cascading failures that could result from a cyberattack on the U.S. power grid could result in losses of over $1 trillion. What triggers the losses in this study?  A spearphishing email. Could such a thing really happen?  It already did in Ukraine.  In December of 2015 someone used a spearphishing email to seize control of a power grid in [...]

2017-02-02T07:32:56-05:00February 2nd, 2017|Cybersecurity - General, SP Guard, spear phishing|