Phishing Attacks
During a
phishing
attack
, attackers use
social engineering
and
malicious emails to
steal valid credentials
from users.
Attackers can use these credentials to begin more complicated attacks, or they can
bundle
and sell them
to other
cybercriminals
.
The
attacker
s
lie about their identity and objectives to
collect
login information from unassuming
victims
or to get them
to download malicious content
. These
emails might ask you to enter your password into a
spoofed
login page or send
that
information directly
back to the sender
.
Although these scams are well
-
known, they are occasionally hard to spot, and they
have a
high rate of success
.
If you
don’t
encounter many of these emails, they may be caught in your
junk folder. If this is the case, your email filtering is working effectively and
removing potentially harmful
phishing attempts.
There is no reason to recover
phishing emails from a junk folder.
Extortion Attacks
Extortion emails work a little differently
.
In this
increasingly popular
type of attack, the hackers claim to
already have access to some sensitive information. That information could include
anything from login
credentials to embarrass
ing photo
s. Whatever they choose is something designed to prompt an
urgent
and desperate reaction from the recipient.
In the email, they lay out what they have against
their target,
then threaten to blackmail them for money.
These types of emails are des
igned to be scary. They are supposed to make the victim feel
so
frantic
that
they
act without thinking.
If you ever
receive a
threatening extortion email, remain calm and report it
t
hrough
the proper
channels. In this post,
we’ll break
down a poorly writte
n extortion email
that was
sent to my junk folder.
Read More
Topics:
Information Security,
Data Protection,
Personal Data Protection
As a cybersecurity engineer and an unapologetically enthusiastic “web guy,” I have both a personal and professional interest in finding new exploitation methods. Recently, I found an interesting and creative way to control a browser by exploiting a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. I learn by doing, so I executed the concept to see it work in practice. Without spoiling too much, I was very pleased with the results! This attack uses nothing more than Netcat and some clever XSS injection code. For those unfamiliar with Netcat, it’s a networking utility that reads and writes data across network connections.
Read More
Topics:
Network Security,
Data Protection,
Penetration Testing,
hacking
How do you know if you have a solid cybersecurity program? You may have anti-virus installed and you change your computer password quarterly, but how do you know if your security program is truly effective? When you can’t see your gaps, it’s hard to make improvements and even harder to pick up the pieces after a security breach. That’s why Cybersecurity Consultants, like ProCircular’s Andrew Chipman, collect all the information they can, then measure your active security controls against their library of applicable standards.
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Topics:
HIPAA,
Information Security,
Data Protection,
it risk assessment,
DFARS,
Manufacturing,
risk
If you’re reading this, it’s very likely that you know how to use the internet. It’s also likely you’ve made an account on the internet somewhere. When you created your last account, what kind of requirements were you forced to use? For a number of web services, these requirements still follow the 2003 NIST SP 800-63 Appendix A standards that recommend an 8-character minimum, containing one uppercase, one lowercase, one digit, and one special character (Ex: Procircular1!).
Read More
Topics:
Cybersecurity,
Data Protection,
Personal Privacy,
hacking,
NIST,
Passwords
Let’s take a look at an often under-utilized aspect of network topology in the small to medium business realm: that’s right, a networking article. But before you run off, what if I told you you could increase performance and lower your production down time with equipment you (might) already have!?
Read More
Topics:
Cybersecurity,
Network Security,
consumer security,
Data Security,
Data Protection,
security incident handling,
cybersecurity plan
