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  Geebo 8:34 am on September 18, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cyberattack, cybersecurity ( 37 ), MGM Resorts, ransomware, Scams ( 1,386 ), social engineering ( 2 )   

  What does the MGM casino cyberattack mean to you? 

  

  By Greg Collier

  When we think of someone stealing from a casino, we may think of someone cheating at the tables. Or we may think of one of the famous heist movies like Ocean’s Eleven, whether it’s the Frank Sinatra or the George Clooney version. What we probably don’t think about is a chain of Las Vegas casinos being held hostage by hackers after a ten-minute phone call. Unfortunately, that’s what appears to have happened to the casinos owned by MGM Resorts this past week.

  While MGM themselves are being tight-lipped about the situation, it seems that a hacker collective found an upper management employee of MGM Resorts on LinkedIn. The hackers then posed as this employee and called MGM’s IT help desk. While speaking with the person at the help desk for only ten minutes, the hackers were able to obtain the information needed to access MGM Resorts’ internal computer systems.

  Once the hackers had the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, they infected MGM’s systems with ransomware. For the next few days, MGM Resorts had to shut down many of its systems, which greatly affected their business. Slot machines were inoperable, and the hotels could not issue electronic room keys to guests, just to name a few of the problems. The casinos even had to revert to giving out handwritten receipts to some of its winners.

  MGM has stated they will not give in to the hackers’ demands.

  So what does MGM’s trouble’s mean to the average consumer? Well, this kind of impersonation attack is known as social engineering and can be used in a multitude of scams. Social engineering is a form of manipulation and psychological persuasion that is often used for malicious purposes. It involves exploiting human psychology and social interactions to trick individuals or groups into divulging confidential information, granting access to restricted areas, or performing actions that may compromise security.

  If social engineering can be used against a multi-billion dollar corporation, it can be used and be successful against anyone. Protecting oneself from social engineering attacks involves a combination of awareness, skepticism, and proactive measures.

  Always verify requests for sensitive information, access, or actions, especially if they come via email, phone calls, or in-person interactions. Use trusted contact information to confirm the legitimacy of the request with the supposed authority or organization.

  Be cautious of unsolicited communications from unknown or unexpected sources. Verify the identity of the person or organization before sharing sensitive information or complying with their requests.

  By adopting these practices and fostering a security-conscious mindset, individuals can significantly reduce their vulnerability to social engineering attacks and help protect their personal and organizational assets.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on June 13, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bitcoin atm ( 25 ), car wrapping ( 11 ), fake check ( 48 ), job scam ( 81 ), Microsoft ( 21 ), prescription drugs ( 5 ), ransomware, Scams ( 1,386 ), tech support scam ( 51 )   

  Scam Round Up: Door to door prescription scam and more 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Today, we’re bringing you three more scams happening around the country that could easily show up in your area.

  ***

  With the weather being warmer, even with rising gas prices, more people are taking to the roads. This has allegedly led to a resurgence of the car warp scam. This is when scammers promise their victims they can make money by wrapping their car in advertisements. While there are legitimate offers for this, the majority of them online are scams. The car wrapping scam is just another avenue for the fake check scam. The scammers send victims a fake check they’re supposed top deposit into their bank account and then use the remainder of the check to pay an ad agency who provides the wrap. The supposed ad agency is part of the scam as well. The victim almost always ends up being held responsible for the full amount of the check to their bank.

  ***

  Unfortunately, another elderly victim was recently targeted in yet another computer virus scam. The Massachusetts woman was using her computer when a message said that her device had been compromised. The message contained a phone number that claimed to be from Microsoft and that she would need to call it to have her computer fixed. This number did not go to Microsoft, but instead went to what is essentially a call center for scammers. They instructed her to take $30,000 out of her bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM. Luckily, police were able to intervene, and the woman got her money back. Keep in mind with this scam that companies like Microsoft don’t usually take phone calls, and no computer repair is worth $30,000.

  ***

  Lastly, we have a story out of Oklahoma City, where authorities are warning about a particularly frightening scam. Law enforcement there are saying that people there are posing as pharmacy employees and going door to door asking residents for expired medication. These are not pharmacy employees, and they are looking for narcotics. If someone comes to your door asking for expired prescriptions, you may want to contact your local police. If you do have expired prescriptions, especially if they’re opioids, you can take them to many pharmacies which do have drug disposal programs. It is also recommended that you can dispose of them in the trash if you mix them with something unpleasant like used cat litter or coffee grounds.

  ***

  Hopefully, these scams won’t come to your area, but if they do, you’re now better prepared for them.

   
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  Geebo 9:00 am on January 27, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: FBI ( 22 ), keylogger, malware ( 26 ), ransomware, Scams ( 1,386 ), usb drive ( 2 )   

  Scammers sending USB drives in the mail 

  

  By Greg Collier

  If you own a computer, you’ve probably used a USB drive. Sometimes they’re also referred to as flash drives or thumb drives. They’re a great tool to help you either back up important files, or transfer files from one computer to another. However, they can also be used in cyberattacks.

  The FBI recently issued a warning that USB drives are being sent through the mail. The drives are being attached to fliers that promise you a free gift card to Amazon or some other well-known retailer. The instructions say that in order to redeem the gift cards, you’ll need to put the USB drive into your computer.

  If you do put the drive into your computer, a few things could happen. The FBI is saying that many of these drives contain ransomware. Ransomware locks up your computer and encrypts your files before asking for a ransom payment to get your files back. The drives could also contain key logging software which sends everything you type back to the scammer. This could include sensitive information such as account logins, passwords, and anything else you type.

  These drives are not only being sent to individuals, but businesses as well. One good ransomware target could cripple an entire business.

  The best defense against these attacks is to never put a strange USB drive in your computer. Whether it’s one you found on the ground, or one you receive in the mail, USB drives that you didn’t buy personally should be seen as suspicious. If you put a strange USB into your computer, you’re risking not only compromising your computer, but potentially other computers in your home or business network as well.

  If you receive one of the USB drives promising you a free gift card, you’re asked to contact the FBI at their website.

   
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  Geebo 9:00 am on December 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: advance fee scam ( 45 ), bank scam ( 72 ), DVD in the mail, malware ( 26 ), ransomware, Scams ( 1,386 ), sweepstakes ( 25 ), Zelle ( 67 )   

  Scam Round Up: Don’t put that disc in your computer 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Once again, it’s time top bring our readers another trio of scams that deserve their attention.

  ***

  Our first scam is kind of a bizarre one. Residents of a town in Maine have reported receiving something strange in the mail. They’ve been receiving handwritten envelopes, addressed only to ‘A friend’. The envelope contains a DVD that has “Please watch, copy, and share with friends” written on it, with no indication of what may actually be on the DVD. More than likely, the DVD contains malware or ransomware. What’s strange about this story is most modern computers don’t even have optical drives installed in them anymore. This scam may have been targeting elderly residents who may have older computers that still have their optical drives. A more modern take on this scam is when scammers will leave USB drives lying around out in public, just hoping that someone will actually plug the drive into their computer.

  ***

  Our next scam is one that you’re probably more familiar with. Residents of New York have reported that they’ve received letters in the mail telling them that they’ve won an $880,000 sweepstakes. The letter even includes a check for $8000. However, you have to pay a $7000 fee to ‘release’ your winnings. This is illegal and known as the advance fee scam. Some victims may think they’ll just deposit the check and use the money to claim their supposed winnings. As you’ve probably surmised, the checks are fake, which would leave the victim paying back the amount of the check to their bank while the scammers make off with $7000. Not that we like to compliment scammers, but this is a pretty clever way of combining two known scams into one to further lure their victims into their trap.

  ***

  Lastly, this is just a warning to people who use mobile banking apps that Zelle scams are still finding victims and draining their bank accounts of thousands of dollars. A woman in Portland recently fell for the scam and lost $23,000. If you receive a text message that is supposedly from your bank asking if you’ve made a large purchase or transaction, do not reply. If you do, you’ll get a call from a scammer posing as your bank and will use the Zelle app to drain your account under the guise of protecting your money. Zelle should only be used when giving or paying money to someone you know personally. If you get a text like the one mentioned, call your bank directly instead, or stop by your local branch.

  ***

  Again, these scams may not be in your area right now, but they could be soon. Hopefully, you now have the knowledge to combat them.

  https://youtu.be/Arc6JPR50xk

   
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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 19, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: business email compromise ( 12 ), malware ( 26 ), money transfer ( 7 ), mortgage scam ( 4 ), ransomware, Scams ( 1,386 )   

  This mortgage scam is more common that you think 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The mortgage scam we’re about to discuss we’ve posted about before. While it’s not a new scam, what surprised us is how often this scam supposedly happens.

  The scam is known as the business email compromise scam, but that phrase encompasses a number of scams where scammers cam imitate business emails that they’ve hijacked. Often these hijacked accounts are used to target someone else that’s in that business, such as someone in payroll or accounting who can issue checks. However, the BEC scam can also target outside customers as well. In this case, people who are getting ready to close on a home.

  In the mortgage version of this scam, scammers are monitoring the email accounts of title companies. The scammers have gained access to these email accounts through malware attacks. When the process is almost complete, the scammers will send an email to the home buyer that appears to have come from the title company asking for the final closing cost to be wired. In one recent case in North Carolina, that amount came to almost $50,000 that the home buyer lost to scammers. By the time the home buyer realized he’d been scammed, the money he wired had already been wired again to multiple locations.

  What really surprised us about this recent scam was that the FBI has said that this mortgage scam is more common than ransomware attacks. Since we hear about ransomware attacks against companies and hospitals on an almost weekly basis, this scam must happen quite often.

  The best way to protect yourself against this scam is to confirm any transactions with your title company over the phone before sending any money. Other tips include if the money wiring instructions are different from before or if there are grammatical errors in the email.

   
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  Geebo 9:03 am on August 4, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Kronos, malware ( 26 ), Marcus Hutchins, ransomware, WannaCry ( 2 )   

  Arrest related to Wannacry made, but it’s not who you might think 

  

  Back in May, a number of computers and corporate networks were infected by the WannaCry ransomware attack. If you’ll recall, Wannacry would encrypt your files and instruct you to pay a ransom in Bitcoin to unknown attackers if you wanted your files decrypted. A British researcher was widely credited for finding an exploit in WannaCry where it could be disabled. Now, that man has been arrested.

  23-year-old Marcus Hutchins was arrested at Defcon, a cybersecurity and hackers conference that’s held annually in Las Vegas. The US Justice Department says Hutchins was allegedly part of another piece of malware called Kronos, Kronos is said to be used in stealing log in information of financial websites enabling an attacker to gain a users’ financial information in theory. The DOJ believes Hutchins made and sold Kronos resulting in a six-count indictment against him, however, those who know him from the cybersecurity field say Hutchins was dedicated to stopping attacks like Kronos and could not possibly be guilty of the crimes he’s accused of.

  Meanwhile, the attackers behind WannaCry finally collected their $140,000 in Bitcoin ransom. While it will be difficult for them to convert Bitcoin into cash without revealing themselves, prosecution may be unlikely considering the attack was believed to have originated from North Korea.

   
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  Geebo 9:01 am on June 28, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Petya, ransomware   

  New ransomware might not be able to be paid off 

  

  Yesterday, a new ransomware attack swept across the globe. The attack first hit the Ukraine before affecting business in Russia, The Netherlands, The UK and the US. The ransomware known as Petya seems to have had an even bigger effect than the recent WannaCry attack. Like WannaCry, Petya asks the victims for money in Bitcoin. While a number of business have started keeping Bitcoin on hand for just such an event, it might not be that simple this time around.

  Petya requires its victims to contact their attackers at a certain e-mail address. The e-mail provider has shut down that address. So now, if the ransom is paid, there’s no way to let the attackers know. Meanwhile your files are still encrypted and you’re also out the money used for ransom. On top of that, the ransomware keeps replicating itself not knowing that it’s been cut off from home.

  Again, even if Petya could call home, there’s never any guarantee that the attackers will release your files even if paid. After all, these are extortionists we’re dealing with. Like their counterparts in the analog world, once these attackers get a taste of your money they may try to squeeze you for more.

  Remember, keep your system updated and patched, and avoid any strange attachments and downloads for best practices.

   
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  Geebo 9:03 am on June 9, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Popcorn Time, ransomware   

  Ransomware makes you choose between your friends or your files 

  

  With the WannaCry ransomware attack largely gone, news is making the rounds of another type of ransomware that is even more malicious than that. While this other attack has also come and gone, the thought process behind it is so malicious in its genius that it’s worthy of discussion. The ransomware is called Popcorn Time, and it forces you to make a choice of Faustian proportions.

  If your system were to become compromised with this ransomware, you’d be offered two options to unencrypt your files. You can either pay the ransom of one Bitcoin to the attackers, or you can simply click a button and spread the ransomware to two of your friends. These two friends will then be sent a disguised link to download the ransomware, and once their infections are recognized by the attackers, your files will be released. Testing people’s morals like this at the expense of other people could almost be considered super-villainy. Dr. Evil would be proud.

  While no method is 100% foolproof, you can protect yourself from ransomware attacks. Keep your system updated regularly by turning on automatic updates. Also, the age-old adage applies of never clicking on links or attachments in emails from people you don’t know. Regularly backing up your data to the cloud or an external device also goes a long way in saving you from having to deal with lost data. Because in the end, isn’t better to take some extra time to protect yourself than it is dealing with the fallout of a no-win situation?

   
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  Geebo 9:00 am on May 18, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bitcoin ( 32 ), ransomware   

  Should companies keep Bitcoin on hand in case of ransomware? 

  

  In wake of the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, cryptocurrency Bitcoin has been in the news a lot lately. In a nutshell, Bitcoin is a digital form of currency that is almost completely anonymous. While it can be used for legal and legitimate transactions, Bitcoin does have somewhat of a shady reputation since it’s not only used as the method of payment to unlock ransomware, but it’s also been used as the de facto form of payment in dark web black markets like Silk Road.

  The people behind the WannaCry attack have so far claimed close to $100,000 in ransom. That’s not a lot when you consider that they were asking between $300 and $600 for each machine that had become infected that was said to number in the hundreds of thousands. According to NBC News, a number of companies have been stockpiling Bitcoin in order to quickly resolve any ransomware attacks they may become the victims of. Is this good business? Well, yes and no. As mentioned before, there is never any guarantee that the encrypted files will ever be released if the ransom is paid. However, it could be more financially viable for some companies to pay the ransom rather than deploying a battalion of IT workers to hopefully fix the problem. Either way to finding a solution a is a huge gamble and neither of them have any kind of beneficial payoff.

  Paying off ransomware may get your files back, but in the long run it encourages more groups to launch more attacks.

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  Geebo 9:01 am on May 15, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: malware ( 26 ), ransomware, WannaCry ( 2 ), Windows ( 3 )   

  Latest ransomware attack shows need to keep systems current 

  

  Do you work for a company that still uses Windows XP because there’s a crucial piece of business software that only runs on the 16-year-old operating system? If so, your Monday morning may not be the most productive due to a global ransomware attack called WannaCry. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the concept of ransomware, it’s a piece of malware that not only infects your computer, but encrypts your files and does not allow you to access them until you pay the hackers holding your system hostage a ransom that it paid through the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. So far, WannaCry has infected over 200,000 systems in 74 countries including a large Spanish telecom and the National Health Service in the UK. In the US, courier service FedEx has said that a portion of their systems have been infected as well.

  The attacks started this past Friday and a security expert was able to find a vulnerability in WannaCry, but since then a new version of the malware has been spotted out in the wild. Since the new version of WannaCry went out during the weekend, a number of companies could be infected and not even know it until they start booting up machines today. The malware was designed specifically to exploit a vulnerability in a number of Windows-based operating systems based on an NSA spy tool that was released to the public by another group of hackers. Windows released a patch for the exploit, even for Windows XP which stopped receiving regular updates from Microsoft in 2014, but many systems unfortunately remain unpatched. Both the US and UK governments are urging those infected with WannaCry to not pay the ransom, which is said to be around $600 USD per infected machine. There is no guarantee that your files will be released once the ransom is paid.

  If you are still running Windows XP at home, you’re running a machine that is ripe for the pickings by malware and ransomware. As previously mentioned, since Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft you are no longer receiving any security updates. There are many free to low-cost alternatives to running XP, such as running a more secure Linux operating system. If you’re a business still using XP because the software needed to run your business only works on XP, it is highly recommended that you upgrade to a more current operating system like Windows 10. While it may be saving you money now to keep using the antiquated OS, in the long run it could cost you your entire network. There are simple and low-cost ways to run XP exclusive programs and applications in Windows 10. Lastly, if you think that you’d rather press your luck against such attacks remember this: it only takes one employee to click on one bad attachment to bring your entire operation to a grinding halt.

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