After 10 years of continued expansion in the security awareness space and providing our platform to tens of thousands of customers, we have observed a certain progress of organizational security awareness over time. The speed of this progress is different by org size, geolocation, and industry, but we see this same pattern return over and […]
Familiar Advice, but Worth Repeating
Researchers at ESET outline some security best practices to avoid falling for phishing emails. In an article for TechZone360, the researchers explain how to identify suspicious links. “Before clicking on an embedded link in the body of an email, inspect it first!” ESET says. “Hackers often conceal malicious links within emails, and mix them with […]
Email Scammers Impersonate U.S. Government Agencies Offering Pandemic Financial Assistance
Taking advantage of people in their time of need, these bottom feeders of the cybercriminal world promise assistance and, instead, collect personal details to make a buck. While the world waits on vaccines to be widely distributed and for the pandemic to finally be over, there are plenty of people that are still hurting financially […]
A Friend Needs Money Urgently? You’re Probably Getting Scammed
People need to be on the lookout for phishing attacks sent from legitimate but compromised social media accounts, according to Paul Ducklin at Naked Security. Ducklin describes a scam sent in by a reader who received an unexpected message from one of their Facebook friends. The message said, “Hi [name]. Hope you’re all well. Do […]
![[Heads Up] Here’s Some Powerful Ammo To Grab More Of Your End-Of-Year InfoSec Budget](https://i0.wp.com/www.optricsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/coins-1015125_1920.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1)
[Heads Up] Here’s Some Powerful Ammo To Grab More Of Your End-Of-Year InfoSec Budget
OK, let’s sum up where we are, here at the end of December 2020. COVID has propelled IT from 2020 to 2030 in a matter of months. However, only a few of us were ready to have the large majority of our users to Work From Home. Your old firewall is useless. The hardware endpoint […]
2021 Prediction: Expect Ransomware Attacks Will Increase in Frequency and Variety
A new forward-looking report from security vendor FireEye Mandiant predicts the greatest single cyber threat today is only going to become a greater menace next year. With 2020 being a dumpster fire of a year, we’re all looking for some good news to shed some light at the end of this tunnel we’re living in. […]
How Many Phishing Sites? Over 2 Million in 2020 (so far)
Google has flagged 2.02 million phishing sites since the beginning of the year, averaging forty-six thousand sites per week, according to researchers at Atlas VPN. The researchers note that the number of phishing sites peaked at the start of the year, which correlates with the start of the pandemic. “Data also reveals that in the […]
![[Heads up] Paying Ransomware Criminals Might Land You A Steep Federal Fine](https://i0.wp.com/www.optricsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/euro-banknotes-3125605_1920.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1)
[Heads up] Paying Ransomware Criminals Might Land You A Steep Federal Fine
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned multiple ransomware criminals over the last few years, most notably the Russian cybercrime syndicate aptly named Evil Corp. However, not only Eastern European hackers were sanctioned, various North Korean and Iranian actors are also on the list. Oct 1st, 2020 OFAC made it […]
Healthcare Sector Still Sustains Phishing Campaigns
No one should take too seriously the high-minded things criminals sometimes say about how they’re restraining themselves during the pandemic, and that they’re going to avoid hitting hospitals and biomedical research organizations. If anything, attacks on such targets have increased in recent months, and phishing is the usual approach. The goal of the phishing attacks […]
Optrics Insider – KnowBe4 Spoofed, Security Awareness Training Wears Off & Microsoft Zero Login Flaw
Join Scott Young and Shaun Sturby from Optrics Engineering as they discuss security awareness training company KnowBe4 being spoofed, the fact the security awareness training for you staff does wear off over time and Microsoft’s zero login flaw. Timecodes: 0:00 – Intro 0:18 – Today’s 3 topics 0:50 – Topic 1: KnowBe4’s Emails Spoofed 3:03 […]