Schneier on Security

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

The only way to protect against BLURtooth attacks is to control the environment in which Bluetooth devices are paired, in order to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, or pairings with rogue devices carried out via social engineering (tricking the human operator). However, patches are expected to be available at one point.

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Authentication Social Engineering Firmware Engineering 363

Krebs on Security

JANUARY 24, 2020

In the case of e-hawk.net, however, the scammers managed to trick an OpenProvider customer service rep into transferring the domain to another registrar with a fairly lame social engineering ruse — and without triggering any verification to the real owners of the domain. ” REGISTRY LOCK.

DNS 315

DNS Social Engineering Engineering Accountability 315

Krebs on Security

MARCH 31, 2020

The attacker also obtained free encryption certificates for escrow.com from Let’s Encrypt. The employee involved in this incident fell victim to a spear-fishing or social engineering attack. 49 (that domain is hobbled here because it is currently flagged as hosting a phishing site).

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Phishing DNS Social Engineering Accountability 328

Security Affairs

MARCH 24, 2025

. “Cloaks attack strategy involves acquiring network access through Initial Access Brokers (IABs) or social engineering methods such as phishing, malvertising, exploit kits, and drive-by downloads disguised as legitimate updates like Microsoft Windows installers.”

Ransomware 91

Ransomware Hacking Social Engineering VPN 91

eSecurity Planet

MAY 25, 2022

Encryption and the development of cryptography have been a cornerstone of IT security for decades and remain critical for data protection against evolving threats. While cryptology is thousands of years old, modern cryptography took off in the 1970s with the help of the Diffie-Hellman-Merkle and RSA encryption algorithms.

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Encryption Computers and Electronics Password Management Passwords 138

Security Affairs

APRIL 7, 2025

In Dark Web environments as well as on specialized forums, sellers are posting synthetic ads inviting potential buyers to contact them privately, often via Telegram, Session, and other encrypted messaging apps. Payments are mostly made in Bitcoin or Monero, to ensure confidentiality and irreversibility.

Cybercrime 137

Cybercrime Social Engineering Accountability Government 137

Krebs on Security

AUGUST 19, 2021

. “For decades, West African scammers, primarily located in Nigeria, have perfected the use of social engineering in cybercrime activity.” ransomware-as-a-service gang actually includes a solicitation for insiders in the desktop wallpaper left behind on systems encrypted with the malware. For example, the Lockbit 2.0

Ransomware 363

Ransomware Social Engineering Cybercrime Scams 363

SecureWorld News

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Ghost ransomware actors, identified as operating from China, have been targeting unpatched systems and stolen credentials to infiltrate networks, encrypt data, and demand ransom payments. Cybersecurity awareness and incident response Train employees to recognize phishing attempts and social engineering.

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Ransomware IoT Encryption Social Engineering 113

Security Affairs

DECEMBER 1, 2024

A Case-Control Study to Measure Behavioral Risks of Malware Encounters in Organizations PyPI Python Library “aiocpa” Found Exfiltrating Crypto Keys via Telegram Bot Bootkitty: Analyzing the first UEFI bootkit for Linux Hudson Rock Announces First Comprehensive Infostealers AI Bot: CavalierGPT Gaming Engines: An Undetected Playground for (..)

Malware 70

Malware Social Engineering Antivirus Engineering 70

eSecurity Planet

APRIL 8, 2025

Called Xanthorox AI, the tool was first spotted earlier this year on darknet forums and encrypted chat groups, where its being marketed as the killer of WormGPT and all EvilGPT variants. But this isnt just another tweaked version of a chatbot. Xanthorox is something entirely different and far more advanced.

Social Engineering 109

Social Engineering Phishing Engineering Education 109

Krebs on Security

JANUARY 30, 2024

2022 that an intrusion had exposed a “limited number” of Twilio customer accounts through a sophisticated social engineering attack designed to steal employee credentials. LastPass said criminal hackers had stolen encrypted copies of some password vaults, as well as other personal information.

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Social Engineering Mobile Passwords Cybercrime 356

eSecurity Planet

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Encryption scrambles data to make it unreadable to those without decryption keys. Proper use of encryption preserves secrecy and radically lowers the potential damage of a successful cybersecurity attack. Encryption algorithm types will provide an overview of the mathematical algorithms used to encrypt data (AES, RSA, etc.),

Encryption 109

Encryption Passwords Authentication Password Management 109

Krebs on Security

OCTOBER 2, 2023

These company-specific Zoom links, which include a permanent user ID number and an embedded passcode, can work indefinitely and expose an organization’s employees, customers or partners to phishing and other social engineering attacks. Image: @Pressmaster on Shutterstock.

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Engineering Encryption Social Engineering Healthcare 309

eSecurity Planet

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Implement Data Encryption & Backup Protocols Encrypting sensitive data adds a layer of protection by ensuring that even if data is accessed, it remains unreadable without proper decryption keys. Cybersecurity awareness training helps staff recognize phishing scams , social engineering attempts, and other threats.

Ransomware 113

Ransomware Authentication Identity Theft Penetration Testing 113

Security Boulevard

DECEMBER 5, 2023

The post AI and Quantum Computing Threaten Encryption and Data Security appeared first on Security Boulevard. The combination of AI and quantum computing in the wrong hands are enough of a security concern to give pause to even the most experienced technologists.

Encryption 120

Encryption Social Engineering Data privacy Engineering 120

Krebs on Security

JUNE 15, 2024

Among those was the encrypted messaging app Signal , which said the breach could have let attackers re-register the phone number on another device for about 1,900 users. LastPass said criminal hackers had stolen encrypted copies of some password vaults, as well as other personal information.

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Hacking Cybercrime Phishing Passwords 333

The Last Watchdog

DECEMBER 18, 2024

Quantum computing advances are making traditional encryption obsolete, and adversaries are stockpiling data for future decryption. FIPS-203 enables legal PQC deployment, prompting CISOs to overhaul encryption strategies. Organizations face rising risks of AI-driven social engineering and personal device breaches.

Risk 173

Risk Threat Detection Technology Phishing 173

The Hacker News

AUGUST 13, 2021

Microsoft has disclosed details of an evasive year-long social engineering campaign wherein the operators kept changing their obfuscation and encryption mechanisms every 37 days on average, including relying on Morse code, in an attempt to cover their tracks and surreptitiously harvest user credentials.

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Phishing Social Engineering Engineering Encryption 127

SecureWorld News

MARCH 13, 2025

Similarly, the AI-assisted ransomware provided a high-level approach to encrypting files but lacked complete execution. Instead, security teams should prioritize behavioral analysismonitoring for unusual patterns such as unexpected file encryption, unauthorized persistence mechanisms, or anomalous network traffic.

Malware 113

Malware Cybersecurity Cyber threats Threat Detection 113

Malwarebytes

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Octo Tempest is believed to be a group of native English speaking cybercriminals that uses social engineering campaigns to compromise organizations all over the world. This can be done in a number of ways, but the most common ones involve social engineering attacks on the victim's carrier. Stop malicious encryption.

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Social Engineering Engineering Ransomware Backups 124

CyberSecurity Insiders

JANUARY 19, 2023

In this blog, we’ll tackle encrypting AWS in transit and at rest. This can occur due to data leakage through faulty apps or systems, by laptops or portable storage devices being lost, by malicious actors breaking through security defenses, by social engineering attacks, or by data being intercepted in man-in-the-middle attacks.

Encryption 102

Encryption Internet Internet Social Engineering 102

eSecurity Planet

OCTOBER 3, 2022

PuTTY, KiTTY, TightVNC, Sumatra PDF Reader, and the muPDF/Subliminal Recording software installer have been backdoored to perform a wide range of social engineering campaigns that started in April 2022. Then they moved the conversation away from the platform to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.

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Software Social Engineering Engineering Phishing 128

Security Affairs

MARCH 10, 2025

Using this social engineering trick, threats like stealers, RATs, Trojans, and crypto miners can persist undetected. Its configuration is Base64-encoded and encrypted with AES-CBC. Threat actors distribute malware in archives with fake installation instructions, urging users to disable security tools to allow their execution.

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Cryptocurrency Malware Social Engineering Antivirus 81

Jane Frankland

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

Why Free Tools Don’t Cut It While consumer grade and free communication tools like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal offer end-to-end encryption, and can help in crises, they do fall short when it comes to enterprise level security and compliance.

Cyber Risk 130

Cyber Risk CISO Risk Encryption 130

Duo's Security Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

WebAuthn-based authenticators use private keys that are not shared publicly and that can be stored securely on tamper-resistant hardware protected with strong encryption. Platform credentials (passkeys) that are synced using services like iCloud Keychain are encrypted in transit.

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Social Engineering Authentication Phishing Engineering 135

The Hacker News

MAY 17, 2023

OilAlpha used encrypted chat messengers like WhatsApp to launch social engineering attacks against its targets," cybersecurity company Recorded Future said in a

Cyber threats 110

Cyber threats Social Engineering Media Engineering 110

Schneier on Security

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

But aside from some special cases and unique circumstances, that’s not how encryption systems are exploited in practice. I wrote this in my book, Data and Goliath : The problem is that encryption is just a bunch of math, and math has no agency. Cryptographic attacks can be passive.

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Encryption Hacking Software Social Engineering 276

The Last Watchdog

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Malicious intent or manipulation: AI chatbots can be exploited to spread misinformation, execute social engineering attacks or launch phishing. Such manipulation can harm user trust, tarnish brand reputation and have broader social consequences. Machine learning helps AI chatbots adapt to and prevent new cyber threats. .

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Cybersecurity Penetration Testing Authentication Social Engineering 273

Digital Shadows

OCTOBER 23, 2024

The attacker gained initial access to two employee accounts by carrying out social engineering attacks on the organization’s help desk twice. Within six hours, the attacker began encrypting the organization’s systems. This concealed their attack until the environment was encrypted and backups were sabotaged.

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Social Engineering Engineering Accountability Backups 122

The Last Watchdog

APRIL 28, 2022

That explains why over 80 percent of data breaches start with weak, reused, and stolen passwords through password phishing, social engineering, brute force attacks and credential stuffing. O’Toole. Hackers don’t need to hack in, they just log in. With more victims, they harvest more credentials, which lead to more victims.

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Passwords Encryption Phishing Social Engineering 237

IT Security Guru

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

Phishing and Social Engineering: These tactics manipulate individuals to disclose sensitive information. With the use of social media and encrypted communication channels, terrorist organizations have expanded their reach, recruiting members and coordinating attacks globally.

Technology 109

Technology Cyber Attacks Government Social Engineering 109

Heimadal Security

NOVEMBER 15, 2024

The New Glove Stealer malware has the ability to bypass Google Chrome’s Application-Bound (App-Bound) encryption to steal browser cookies.

Malware 97

Malware Social Engineering Engineering Encryption 97

IT Security Guru

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Ransomware attacks are strategically designed to either encrypt or delete critical data and system files, compelling organisations to meet the attackers’ financial demands. By keeping the encryption key on the infected device, ransomware may gradually encrypt files. How are victims of Ransomware exploited?

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Ransomware Encryption Backups Social Engineering 134

CyberSecurity Insiders

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

With quantum computing looming in the not-so-distant future, the way that we think about encryption will need to evolve. However, the complex math behind creating encryption keys is no match for the power of quantum computers. With 128-bit key encryption, it could take trillions of years to find a matching key.

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Risk Social Engineering Threat Detection Encryption 134

The Last Watchdog

JUNE 21, 2020

Although most people think of ransomware as a dodgy application that encrypts data and holds it for ransom, the concept is much more heterogeneous than that. File encryption 2013 – 2015. It emerged in September 2013 and paved the way for hundreds of file-encrypting menaces that have splashed onto the scene ever since.

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Ransomware Hacking Encryption Penetration Testing 243

SecureWorld News

OCTOBER 13, 2024

However, unauthorized access to this data is entirely possible without proper encryption and data protection measures. Strong encryption protocols such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) will be key in maintaining data integrity in transit and at rest.

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Artificial Intelligence Technology Authentication Data preservation 109

SecureWorld News

MARCH 17, 2025

You must equip your staff with the knowledge to recognize phishing attempts, social engineering ploys, and other common cyber threats through regular, targeted training sessions. You also need a clear and well-practiced incident response plan in place.

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Cyber Attacks Digital transformation Threat Detection Penetration Testing 113