BEC scammers use residential IP addresses in attacks to make them seem locally generated and evade detection.
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BEC scammers use residential IP addresses in attacks to make them seem locally generated and evade detection.
The post Microsoft: BEC Scammers Use Residential IPs to Evade Detection appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Google is now letting Gmail users in the US run scans to learn whether their Gmail ID appears on the dark web.
The post Google Now Lets US Users Search Dark Web for Their Gmail ID appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Token has raised a total of $53 million to work on a biometrics-powered wearable device featuring multi-factor authentication technologies.
The post Token Gets $30M Funding for Biometrics MFA Smart Ring appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Strivacity, a Virginia startup working on technology to simplify and secure customer logins, has attracted $20 million in funding to fuel global expansion plans.
The post Strivacity Scores $20M for CIAM Expansion Plans appeared first on SecurityWeek.
While there are likely many different approaches, here are a few points that are important for enterprises to consider when evaluating bot solutions.
The post What Makes an Effective Anti-Bot Solution? appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Solomon Ekunke Okpe was sentenced to four years in prison in the US for his role in a BEC fraud ring.
The post Nigerian BEC Scammer Sentenced to Prison in US appeared first on SecurityWeek.
443ID is refocusing its solution to tackle account fraud detection and prevention, and has changed its name to Verosint.
The post Verosint Launches Account Fraud Detection and Prevention Platform appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Spanish and US authorities have dismantled a cybercrime ring that defrauded victims of more than $5.3 million.
The post Spanish, US Authorities Dismantle Cybercrime Ring That Defrauded Victims of $5.3 Million appeared first on SecurityWeek.
Australian authorities this week announced the sentencing of a Sydney man for attempting to blackmail Optus customers using leaked data stolen during a September 2022 data breach at the wireless carrier.
The Optus hack resulted in the theft of personal information belonging to 9.8 million customers, including names, birth dates, physical and email addresses, and phone numbers. For 2.1 million customers, numbers associated with identification documents were also compromised.
The incident was disclosed on September 22, with the attackers leaking the personal information of roughly 10,000 individuals a few days later.
The attackers demanded a $1 million ransom in cryptocurrency, threatening to release more of the stolen information each day until a payment was made.
On October 6, the Australian Federal Police announced the arrest of a Sydney man who attempted to use the leaked data to extort money from individuals impacted by the data breach.
The man, now 20, sent text messages to more than 90 Optus customers, demanding that they transfer $2,000 AUD (roughly $1,300 USD) to a bank account in the name of the scammer.
The youngster pleaded guilty on November 8 to two “counts of using a telecommunications network with intent to commit a serious offense […], where the serious offense is blackmail”, the Australian authorities say.
The individual was sentenced to 18-month community correction order and 100 hours of community service.
Related: Email Hack Hits 15,000 Business Customers of Australian Telecoms Firm TPG
Related: Hackers Leak Australian Health Records on Dark Web
Related: Medibank Confirms Data Breach Impacts 9.7 Million Customers
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Pig Butchering, also known as Sha Zhu Pan and CryptoRom, is an ugly name for an ugly scam. It is not new. What is new is that apps perpetrating the scam can be downloaded from the official Apple and Android app stores – giving them greater apparent validity to targets.
The scam is a version of romance scam, where targets are befriended, lured in, persuaded to download a disguised malicious app, drawn into false cryptocurrency dealing, and defrauded. It’s a long game social engineering scam built on trust rather than fear, greed, or urgency.
It originated in China. When the Chinese authorities clamped down, the gangs decamped to places like Cambodia. Now, according to an analysis from Sophos, the gangs are well organized but as ugly as the scam. At the top of the hierarchy is the ‘head office’ which does supervision and money laundering.
The scam itself is subcontracted to affiliates, which have a front desk handling staffing, a tech team handling the technology involved, and a finance team looking after the money. Profits tend to be divided 60-40 – with 40% going to the head office.
At the bottom of the pile are the keyboarders who liaise with, and trick the targets. These are often victims themselves, sometimes foreigners lured into the process by the promise of earning money, and kept in the process by the threat of violence.
The new danger exposed by Sophos is not the scam (that’s not new) but the criminals’ success in getting malicious apps into the official app stores (Ace Pro and MBM_BitScan into the App Store, and BitScan into Google Play). This is not uncommon with Google Play, but unusual with Apple. In two separate examples that by-passed Apple’s App Store review, a legitimate-looking app initially communicates with a benign back end. Nothing malicious can be seen, so the apps passed Apple’s review.
Only after the app is accepted, downloaded, and launched does the developer switch domains, from the benign back end to a malicious server that delivers the malicious content.
“When we originally began investigating CryptoRom scams targeting iOS users, the scammers would have to persuade users to first install a configuration profile before they could install the fake trading app,” comments Jagadeesh Chandraiah, senior threat researcher at Sophos. “This obviously involves an additional level of social engineering—a level that’s hard to surmount.”
Many potential victims would be ‘alerted’ that something wasn’t right if they cannot directly download a supposedly legitimate app. But by getting an application into the App Store, the scammers have vastly increased their potential victim pool, particularly since most users inherently trust Apple.
“Both apps are also unaffected by iOS’ new Lockdown mode, which prevents scammers from loading mobile profiles helpful for social engineering,” continued Chandraiah. “In fact, these CryptoRom scammers may be shifting their tactics – that is, focusing on bypassing the App Store review process – in light of the security features in Lockdown.”
The scam still requires extensive social engineering. The victim is typically approached via a dating app, and then invited to switch the conversation to WhatsApp. In one case, the victim was based in Switzerland. The scammer or scammers used a manufactured profile of a woman based in London, with a full and compelling Facebook profile complete with professional or stolen location and lifestyle photos.
“After establishing a rapport, the criminals behind the profile told the victim that ‘her’ uncle worked for a financial analysis firm, and invited the victim to do cryptocurrency trading together.” It was at this point that the victim was introduced to the fake application in the app store.
In such cases, a degree of patience is still demonstrated by the attackers. Crypto investment begins slowly, and the victim can even make withdrawals from the crypto account. But the investment goes straight to the criminals. By the time the victim realizes that something is wrong, both the money and the scammers are gone.
This scam, says the Sophos report, “is a well-organized, syndicated scam operation that uses a combination of romance-centered social engineering and fraudulent crypto trading applications and websites to lure victims and steal their money after gaining their confidence.” The worrying possibility for the future is that emerging artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT will make such detailed and professional social engineering even more compelling – and widely available to criminals less sophisticated.
Related: 2,000 People Arrested Worldwide for Social Engineering Schemes
Related: Ongoing Bitcoin Scams Demonstrate Power of Social Engineering Triggers
Related: Meet Domen, a New and Sophisticated Social Engineering Toolkit
Related: Social Engineering: Attackers’ Reliable Weapon
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