Resources
GPT Goes Evil: How Criminals Are Leveraging LLM’s
How GPT’s Evil Twin Could Be Used in BEC Attacks A black hat AI tool called Worm GPT is being used to improve the efficacy of phishing emails. This is particularly troubling because a recent survey shows that 1 in 5 people fall for the fake, AI-generated emails, according to cybersecurity researchers. Researchers at SlashNext recently assessed WormGPT, an evil twin of OpenAI’s GPT AI model designed specifically for malicious activities. Criminals continue to be early adopters of new tech; this black hat alternative to the GPT-J...
read moreIowa Reports 3rd Large Vendor Breach This Year
Latest Breach Affects 234,000 Individuals; Involves Recent MCNA Insurance Co. Hack The state government of Iowa reported to federal regulators a third major health data breach since April involving a third-party vendor. The breach stems from an incident at dental health insurer MCNA Insurance Co. The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services reported hackers had compromised the protected health information of nearly 234,000 Iowa residents in an incident that affects nearly 9 million Americans across the country. Iowa is among more than 100...
read moreCheck Fraud Increases As Criminals Evolve
Check fraud increased 84% between 2021 and 2022, to 680,000 reported cases, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Part of this growth stems from the fact that check fraud has become easier and more accessible. Cybercrime groups are openly hawking fraudulent check schemes on the Telegram messaging app. Check fraud started rising during the COVID-19 pandemic partially due to stimulus programs. Criminals made easy money by stealing checks from the mail, altering them, and selling them or hiring mules and walkers to deposit the fake...
read moreDuo Security/Cisco Security Study Highlights 5 Most-Impactful Security Activities
A third-party security study commissioned by Duo Security/Cisco highlights the five most-impactful security activities for an organization. This study builds on one that was previously commissioned in 2020. Broadly speaking, the study focuses on two key security areas: prevention and response. For prevention, the two most impactful areas were having a current tech stack, and having that tech stack integrated with your security systems. They repeatedly found that aging tech stacks are less resilient and more prone to negative outcomes....
read moreLawsuit Alleges Iowa Health Center Sent PHI to Facebook
Latest in a String of Similar Proposed Class Actions Across Healthcare Industry The University of Iowa Health Care is facing a proposed class action lawsuit alleging it used website tracking pixels to transmit patient data to Facebook. The claim is the latest in a string of legal actions against other healthcare centers that pasted Facebook Pixel and similar online behavior tracking codes into their patient portals. Concerns, and lawsuits, over the use of web trackers by the healthcare industry have increased significantly in the last 9...
read moreSuccess of EMV Chip leads to changing fraud landscape.
The enhanced security provided by EMV chips has significantly impacted card fraud at retail locations. The continued presence of the magnetic stripe as a backup leads to continuing fraud losses. However, as always, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and criminals continue to use a variety of ways to obtain and exploit card information. Several of these ways continue to rely on the presence of the magnetic strip in order to either obtain details or to make fraudulent purchases. Criminals continue to exploit the magnetic strip in a variety of...
read moreMost Common Connected Devices That Pose Risk to Hospitals
Study: Unpatched Nurse Call Systems, Printers and IP Cameras Top the List Globally, hospitals are expected to deploy over 7 million medical devices by 2026 — or more than 3,850 devices per hospital, according to a study conducted last year by research firm Juniper Research. Many IoT device makers and users have lagged in updating these products to patch vulnerabilities, said Scott Singer, managing director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Medical Device Cybersecurity. A study of connected medical devices with the...
read moreChina Exploits Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
Chinese Hackers and Others Increasingly Favor Unpatched Vulnerabilities According to security researchers, last year was another bonanza in zero-days for Chinese state hackers. They’re also predicting a permanent uptick in nation-state exploitation of yet-unpatched vulnerabilities. Data taken from original research by cybersecurity firm Mandiant and open-source reporting suggests zero-day exploitation fluctuates from year to year but is generally trending upward. A report from the Google-owned threat intelligence company says 55 zero-days...
read more2022 Reported US Data Breaches Near-Record Highs
After Surge in 2nd Half, 1,802 Breach Notifications Issued in 2022; Over 440 Million Individuals Affected After a slow start, likely due to geopolitical factors, 2022 was another bumper year for data breaches in the United States. U.S. organizations issued 1,802 data breach notifications in 2022, affecting more than 400 million individuals, the Identity Theft Resource Center reports. That figure is just 60 breaches shy of the 1,862 breaches in the U.S. that ITRC counted in 2021. That near miss occurred despite a slowdown in data breach...
read moreRansomware Profits Dip as Fewer Victims Pay Extortion As Funding From Ransoms Goes Down, Gangs Embrace Re-Extortion, Researchers Warn
Bad news for ransomware groups: Experts find that getting a payday is harder as the world fortifies against the onslaught of criminal malware. The good news is that more would-be victims are getting robust defenses in place, including well-rehearsed incident response plans, which make executing a successful attack harder. Also good news, law enforcement agencies mobilize earlier to assist victims, and by doing so, they’re learning better how attackers work and where they might strike next. In 2019, 79% of victims paid a ransom. In 2022,...
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