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Digital Risk Protection vs. Digital Threat Intelligence

By Jessica Ryan on Fri, 10/09/2020
Digital risk protection (DRP) is rapidly gaining traction among CISOs and security professionals. Once considered a subset of digital threat intelligence (DTI), DRP has emerged as a distinct security function, highlighted by Gartner Hype Cycle and other analyst research for its ability to address a wide range of external cyber threats. Many enterprises rely on DRP daily to safeguard digital assets...
How to Take Down Social Media Threats
Blog

How to Take Down Social Media Threats

Tue, 10/06/2020
Threat actors are increasingly turning to social media to target brands, VIPs, and customers. These platforms host a wide range of threat types, from impersonation and phishing to scams and misinformation. Each social network has its own policies and procedures for handling reported attacks, which can make the mitigation process complex and time-consuming for security teams. In this post, we’ll...
Social Media Intelligence: Cutting Through the Noise
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Social Media Intelligence: Cutting Through the Noise

By Jessica Ryan on Fri, 10/02/2020
Social media is rapidly becoming the preferred online channel for threat actors. Almost four billion people use some form of social media, and organizations are increasingly reliant on company pages, executive presence, and positive customer interaction to build a strong brand. As a result, a malicious post or tweet can cause irreversible damage to an enterprise. Last year, 53% of all social...
APWG: SSL Certificates No Longer Indication of Safe Browsing
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APWG: SSL Certificates No Longer Indication of Safe Browsing

Mon, 09/28/2020
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has released its Phishing Activity Trends Report analyzing phishing attacks and identifying theft techniques reported by its members for Q2 of 2020. Key highlights of the report include a significant increase in wire transfer loss attributed to business email compromise (BEC) attacks and a 20% increase in BEC attacks targeting the social media sector. In...
Royal Ripper: Multi-Stage Phishing Attack Adapts to Victim Input
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Royal Ripper: Multi-Stage Phishing Attack Adapts to Victim Input

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 09/24/2020
PhishLabs is monitoring a multi-stage phishing campaign that impersonates government entities and telecoms to target financial institutions and their customers. The threat actor behind the attacks has been designated Royal Ripper. The initial stage of the attack harvests personal information and the sort code of the victim's bank. It then uses the sort code to redirect the victim to a second...
Navigating Social Media Threats : A Digital Risk Protection Playbook
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Navigating Social Media Threats : A Digital Risk Protection Playbook

By Jessica Ryan on Wed, 09/02/2020
Social media is rapidly growing as a preferred channel for threat actors targeting enterprises with malicious campaigns. Half of the global population uses social media, and a post containing sensitive data or impersonating a high-level executive can be shared instantly, for 3.8 billion people to see. There are many types of social media threats that bad actors use to harm their victims, and...
Data Leaks in 2020: Accelerated Digital Transformation Exposes Enterprises
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Data Leaks in 2020: Accelerated Digital Transformation Exposes Enterprises

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 08/20/2020
The digital presence of today's enterprise looks very different than it did earlier in the year. The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing rapid change on how many businesses use technology. From transitioning to remote workforces to delivering new online services, digital transformation initiatives that would normally span years are happening in weeks and months. Under these conditions, the likelihood of...
External Data Leaks
Gartner Releases Emerging Tech Report: Critical Insights into Digital Risk Protection
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Gartner Releases Emerging Tech Report: Critical Insights into Digital Risk Protection

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 08/04/2020
Driven by expanding use cases, approachable intelligence, and the incorporation of premium services, demand for Digital Risk Protection Services (DRPS) has grown over the last 12 months and continues to increase. In Gartner's latest Emerging Technologies report, the author cites the broad range of use cases DRPS addresses as one reason for this growth, including: Brand protection (ex:...
Account Takeover Attacks Cause Chaos @ Twitter
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Account Takeover Attacks Cause Chaos @ Twitter

Thu, 07/16/2020
On Tuesday afternoon, dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts were hijacked to promote cryptocurrency scams. Threat actors took over the accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, and many others. Corporate Twitter accounts were also hijacked, including those belonging to cryptocurrency companies. What does this mean for enterprises and their security teams? Threat actors...
Account Takeover Protection
Gartner Releases 2020 Hype Cycle for Security Operations
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Gartner Releases 2020 Hype Cycle for Security Operations

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 07/14/2020
Digital Risk Protection has emerged as a critical new capability for security teams. It protects critical digital assets and data from external threats across surface, dark, and deep web sources. In Gartner's latest Hype Cycle for Security Operations, the author writes “This technology accelerates the breadth and depth of protecting digital assets in an organization by significantly improving...
Spoofed Domains Present Multifaceted, Growing Problems for Enterprises
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Spoofed Domains Present Multifaceted, Growing Problems for Enterprises

Thu, 07/09/2020
Threat actors are increasingly registering new domains to launch malicious campaigns against enterprises. Identifying suspicious domains, as well as monitoring existing ones for changes, is an overwhelming and reactive task for many organizations. In order to minimize the risk spoofed domains pose, security teams must be able to efficiently detect abuse and understand what is required to mitigate...
Executive Attacks on Social Media Hit All-Time High as Analysts Point to AI
Blog

Executive Impersonation Techniques on Social Media

By Nick Oram on Mon, 06/22/2020
Threat actors are masquerading as executives on social media for purposes of stealing credentials and damaging popular brands. Today, many executives have accounts on these platforms to network as well as post content promoting their companies. Unfortunately, it is easy for bad actors to create fake accounts and reach massive audiences by impersonating well-known individuals. These types of...
Executive Protection
Abuse of HTTPS on Nearly Three-Fourths of all Phishing Sites
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Abuse of HTTPS on Nearly Three-Fourths of all Phishing Sites

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 06/16/2020
Since 2015, PhishLabs (now Fortra Brand Protection) has and continues to track how threat actors abuse HTTPS or SSL certs. In particular, threat actors often use HTTPS on their phishing sites to add a layer of legitimacy, better mimic the target site in question, and reduce being flagged or blocked from some browsers. In 2014, threat actors hit a significant milestone in this usage when more than...
FBI Warns of Growing Mobile Banking App Threats
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FBI Warns of Growing Mobile Banking App Threats

Fri, 06/12/2020
With mobile banking usage surging by 50% since early 2020, the FBI has issued a public service announcement warning consumers of increased cyber threats targeting mobile banking apps. This spike is largely attributed to the shift to remote work and social distancing, which has made mobile apps a primary tool for financial transactions.There are two major types of app-based threats to be aware of...
Data Leakage on Social Media: Credit Card Info, Confidential Docs
Blog

Understanding Social Media Data Leak Risks

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 06/11/2020
When we hear “data leak,” most enterprises immediately think of the dark web. And while it’s true that stolen information shared on anonymous, gated platforms can be damaging, there’s a growing trend that’s even more alarming: data being exposed on social media. These public channels allow for faster distribution and can lead to more immediate — and potentially more destructive — consequences....
External Data Leaks
Social Media Platforms Latest Channels used to Leak Sensitive Data
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Social Media Platforms Latest Channels used to Leak Sensitive Data

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 06/02/2020
Threat actors are using social media accounts to expose and sell data that has been compromised. While information found on many of these platforms has traditionally been disclosed by enterprises and individuals with intent, cyber criminals are taking information acquired by means of scams and data breaches and promoting their sale on various social platforms not always monitored by security teams...
Threat Actors Impersonate Brands on Social Media for Malicious Purposes
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Threat Actors Impersonate Brands on Social Media for Malicious Purposes

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 05/28/2020
With more than 2.95 billion people now estimated to use social media, an organization's online presence directly relates to the satisfaction of its customers, as well as its profits. False or misleading images or comments connected with a brand on online platforms can swiftly impact the reputation or even financials of an otherwise successful company. While most individuals have been...
Reporting Cyber Threats: Executives at Risk
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Reporting Cyber Threats: Executives at Risk

Thu, 05/21/2020
Across the cybersecurity industry, white papers and reports typically highlight high-level trends related to cyber threats. However, what is often overlooked is a more granular analysis that focuses on individuals within an organization. More specifically, the high-value targets that threat actors focus much of their attention on.As part of an ongoing series, PhishLabs will examine how executives...
Executive Protection
COVID-19 Phishing Update: File Sharing Services Abused to Steal Credentials
Blog

COVID-19 Phishing Update: File Sharing Services Abused to Steal Credentials

By Jessica Ryan on Tue, 05/19/2020
As enterprise workforces continue to transition to remote environments, online file sharing and cloud storage tools are becoming a frequent, if not necessary means of collaboration. While abusing these types of platforms is nothing new to threat actors, the lures they use are now taking advantage of the novel coronavirus. The two examples below demonstrate how. We are providing ongoing...
Account Takeover Protection
COVID-19 Phishing Update: Threat Actors on Twitter Want You to Pay for Your Stolen Passwords
Blog

COVID-19 Phishing Update: Threat Actors on Twitter Want You to Pay for Your Stolen Passwords

By Jessica Ryan on Thu, 05/14/2020
Cyber criminals are using COVID-19 to manipulate users on Twitter and steal funds through payment applications. Our latest example demonstrates how victims are being targeted with fake credential dumps. We are providing ongoing updates on coronavirus-themed attacks observed by the PhishLabs team. This post and others are meant to help the security community stay up-to-date on how threat...