After compromising the email account of a government official at one agency, targeted phishing attacks were sent from this trusted contact to other government agencies purporting that bank accounts for receiving their payments had changed. Puerto Rico’s Industrial Development Company sent over $2.6 million while the Tourism Company paid $1.5 million to fraudster-controlled accounts held
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More than 3,800 data breaches occurred in the first half of this year, a 54 percent increase from the first half of 2018. The number of consumer records compromised in data breaches increased 52 percent over this time, with 4.1 billion records compromised in the first half of 2019 and 3.2 billion of those coming
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Fraudsters find more success with getting phishing campaigns delivered as well as with open and click rates when sending from an existing, known and trusted email address. This may be why a recent report found that 20 percent of phishing email attacks against employees are sent from email addresses a fraudster has taken over. Most
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In partnership with another Alphabet group company, Google recently released a way for consumers to test their skills in detecting phishing emails. It includes eight simulated emails based on characteristics of real phishing attacks, where the user is to indicate whether each email is legitimate or fake. According to a recent survey, 83 percent of
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According to a recent survey from ProofPoint, more than 80 percent of information security (infosec) professionals saw an increase in phishing attacks in 2018 while nearly two-thirds reported an increase in spear phishing. Meanwhile, those who reported compromised accounts as a result of phishing attacks increased from 38 percent of infosec professionals in 2017 to
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While nearly 30 million Facebook users had their names and basic contact information stolen, about 14 million of these data breach victims also had their birthdate, recent search history and locations compromised. Fraudsters are likely already using this information to help crack security questions on consumer accounts as well as to better target phishing emails
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There were nearly 17 million identity fraud victims in the United States in 2017, more than ever before. This increase is likely supported by the increasing number of data breaches and stolen identity records in recent years, which is keeping up the pace so far in 2018 with 124 data breaches coming to public attention
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Nearly 1,600 data breaches occurred in the United States in 2017, breaking the annual record of 1,093 that was set just last year. The number of compromised data records, of which 88 percent included Social Security Numbers and 8 percent included payment card numbers, increased to nearly 180 million, the highest total since 2009.
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Whether making fraudulent purchases to accrue loyalty points and rewards, or taking over legitimate customer accounts to steal and spend the loyalty balances they’ve built up, loyalty fraud is damaging with both financial and brand risks. Despite the growth of loyalty-based fraud in recent years, this is still a vulnerability point for many organizations that
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A recent study cataloging prices across English- and Russian-language fraudster forums examined 320 purchases for stolen payment, identity and log-in information earning hackers between $1 million and $2 million, while the fraudsters using this information from less than half of these transactions were able to steal between $1.7 million and $3.4 million. These estimates
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