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Smishing Explained: What It Is and How to Prevent It

Reading Time: ~ 3 min.

Do you remember the last time you’ve interacted with a brand, political cause, or fundraising campaign via text message? Have you noticed these communications occurring more frequently as of late?

It’s no accident. Whereas marketers and communications professionals can’t count on email opens or users accepting push notifications from apps, they’re well aware that around 98% of SMS messages are read within seconds of being received

Click here to see how 9 top endpoint security products perform against 15 efficiency benchmarks in the 2019 PassMark Report

As with any development in how we communicate, the rise in brand-related text messaging has attracted scammers looking to profit. Hence we arrive at a funny new word in the cybersecurity lexicon, “smishing.” Mathematical minds might understand it better represented by the following equation:

SMS + Phishing = Smishing

For the rest of us, smishing is the act of using text messages to trick individuals into divulging sensitive information, visiting a risky site, or downloading a malicious app onto a smartphone. These often benign seeming messages might ask you to confirm banking details, verify account information, or subscribe to an email newsletter via a link delivered by SMS.

As with phishing emails, the end goal is to trick a user into an action that plays into the hands of cybercriminals. Shockingly, smishing campaigns often closely follow natural disasters as scammers try to prey on the charitable to divert funds into their own pockets.

Smishing vs Vishing vs Phishing

If you’re at all concerned with the latest techniques cybercriminals are using to defraud their victims, your vocabulary may be running over with terms for the newest tactics. Here’s a brief refresher to help keep them straight.

  • Smishing, as described above, uses text messages to extract the sought after information. Different smishing techniques are discussed below.
  • Vishing is when a fraudulent actor calls a victim pretending to be from a reputable organization and tries to extract personal information, such as banking or credit card information.
  • Phishing is any type of social engineering attack aimed at getting a victim to voluntarily turn over valuable information by pretending to be a legitimate source. Both smishing and vishing are variations of this tactic.

Examples of Smishing Techniques

Enterprising scammers have devised a number of methods for smishing smartphone users. Here are a few popular techniques to be aware of:

  • Sending a link that triggers the downloading of a malicious app. Clicks can trigger automatic downloads on smartphones the same way they can on desktop internet browsers. In smishing campaigns, these apps are often designed to track your keystrokes, steal your identity, cede control of your phone to hackers, or encrypt the files on your phone and hold them for ransom.
  • Linking to information-capturing forms. In the same way many email phishing campaigns aim to direct their victims to online forms where their information can be stolen, this technique uses text messages to do the same. Once a user has clicked on the link and been redirected, any information entered into the form can be read and misused by scammers.
  • Targeting users with personal information. In a variation of spear phishing, committed smishers may research a user’s social media activity in order to entice their target with highly personalized bait text messages. The end goal is the same as any phishing attack, but it’s important to know that these scammers do sometimes come armed with your personal information to give their ruse a real feel.
  • Referrals to tech support. Again, this technique is a variation on the classic tech support scam, or it could be thought of as the “vish via smish.” An SMS message will instruct the recipient to contact a customer support line via a number that’s provided. Once on the line, the scammer will try to pry information from the caller by pretending to be a legitimate customer service representative. 

How to Prevent Smishing

For all the conveniences technology has bestowed upon us, it’s also opened us up to more ways to be ripped off. But if a text message from an unknown number promising to rid you of mortgage debt (but only if you act fast) raises your suspicion, then you’re already on the right track to avoiding falling for smishing.

Here are a few other best practices for frustrating these attacks:

  • Look for all the same signs you would if you were concerned an email was a phishing attempt: 1) Check for spelling errors and grammar mistakes, 2) Visit the sender’s website itself rather than providing information in the message, and 3) Verify the sender’s telephone address to make sure it matches that of the company it purports to belong to.
  • Never provide financial or payment information on anything other than the trusted website itself.
  • Don’t click on links from unknown senders or those you do not trust
  • Be wary of “act fast,” “sign up now,” or other pushy and too-good-to-be-true offers.
  • Always type web addresses in a browser rather than clicking on the link.
  • Install a mobile-compatible antivirus on your smart devices.

The post Smishing Explained: What It Is and How to Prevent It appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Thoughtful Design in the Age of Cybersecurity AI

Reading Time: ~ 3 min.

AI and machine learning offer tremendous promise for humanity in terms of helping us make sense of Big Data. But, while the processing power of these tools is integral for understanding trends and predicting threats, it’s not sufficient on its own.

Thoughtful design of threat intelligence—design that accounts for the ultimate needs of its consumers—is essential too. There are three areas where thoughtful design of AI for cybersecurity increases overall utility for its end users.

Designing where your data comes from

To set the process of machine learning in motion, data scientists rely on robust data sets they can use to train models that deduce patterns. If your data is siloed, it relies on a single community of endpoints or is made up only of data gathered from sensors like honeypots and crawlers. There are bound to be gaps in the resultant threat intelligence.

A diverse set of real-world endpoints is essential to achieve actionable threat intelligence. For one thing, machine learning models can be prone to picking up biases if exposed to either too much of a particular threat or too narrow of a user base. That may make the model adept at discovering one type of threat, but not so great at noticing others. Well-rounded, globally-sourced data provides the most accurate picture of threat trends.

Another significant reason real-world endpoints are essential is that some malware excels at evading traditional crawling mechanisms. This is especially common for phishing sites targeting specific geos or user environments, as well as for malware executables. Phishing sites can hide their malicious content from crawlers, and malware can appear benign or sit on a user’s endpoint for extended periods of time without taking an action.

Designing how to illustrate data’s context

Historical trends help to gauge future measurements, so designing threat intelligence that accounts for context is essential. Take a major website like www.google.com for example. Historical threat intelligence signals it’s been benign for years, leading to the conclusion that its owners have put solid security practices in place and are committed to not letting it become a vector for bad actors. On the other hand, if we look at a domain that was only very recently registered or has a long history of presenting a threat, there’s a greater chance it will behave negatively in the future. 

Illustrating this type of information in a useful way can take the form of a reputation score. Since predictions about a data object’s future actions—whether it be a URL, file, or mobile app—are based on probability, reputation scores can help determine the probability that an object may become a future threat, helping organizations determine the level of risk they are comfortable with and set their policies accordingly.

For more information on why context is critical to actionable threat intelligence, click here.

Designing how you classify and apply the data

Finally, how a threat intelligence provider classifies data and the options they offer partners and users in terms of how to apply it can greatly increase its utility. Protecting networks, homes, and devices from internet threats is one thing, and certainly desirable for any threat intelligence feed, but that’s far from all it can do.

Technology vendors designing a parental control product, for instance, need threat intelligence capable of classifying content based on its appropriateness for children. And any parent knows malware isn’t the only thing children should be shielded from. Categories like adult content, gambling sites, or hubs for pirating legitimate media may also be worthy of avoiding. This flexibility extends to the workplace, too, where peer-to-peer streaming and social media sites can affect worker productivity and slow network speeds, not to mention introduce regulatory compliance concerns. Being able to classify internet object with such scalpel-like precision makes thoughtfully designed threat intelligence that is much more useful for the partners leveraging it.

Finally, the speed at which new threat intelligence findings are applied to all endpoints on a device is critical. It’s well-known that static threat lists can’t keep up with the pace of today’s malware, but updating those lists on a daily basis isn’t cutting it anymore either. The time from initial detection to global protection must be a matter of minutes.

This brings us back to where we started: the need for a robust, geographically diverse data set from which to draw our threat intelligence. For more information on how the Webroot Platform draws its data to protect customers and vendor partners around the globe, visit our threat intelligence page.

The post Thoughtful Design in the Age of Cybersecurity AI appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Cyber News Rundown: Arizona School Ransomware Attack

Reading Time: ~ 2 min.

Ransomware Closes Arizona School District

As many students began returning for the fall semester, classes were cancelled in the Flagstaff Unified School District in Arizona after a ransomware attack disabled some of the district’s computer systems. Officials haven’t yet released any additional information on the ransom demanded or if any sensitive employee or student documents was compromised. The attack is another in a chain of ransomware campaigns affecting dozens of school districts around the country in recent months.

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BEC Scam Targets Toyota Corporation

A subsidiary company of Toyota fell victim to a business email compromise (BEC) that could cost more than $37 million. Using social engineering to convince the victim to send the wire transfer has become a common practice around the world and earned scammers an estimated $1.3 billion in 2018 alone. Officials are still working to determine the proper course of action to recover the stolen funds, though it is unlikely they will be able to track down their present location.

International BEC Sting Nets 281 Arrests

With the cooperation of many law enforcement agencies around the world, at least 281 individuals were taken into custody for their roles in various BEC scams. Along with the arrests, officials seized $3.7 million in cash that had been stolen by redirecting wire transfers while posing as a high-level executive. While the majority of arrests came from Europe and Africa, nearly a quarter occurred in the U.S.

LokiBot Campaign Affects U.S. Manufacturer

A poorly written email phishing campaign was recently discovered with a rather malicious payload called  LokiBot. In the scam, once a victim would open the attachment (with assurances in the email that it simply needs to be reviewed), an archive would unzip and allow the payload to begin hunting for credentials and any other sensitive information stored on the system. After reviewing the LokiBot sample, the IP address from which the campaign originated from has been tied to several other, similar campaigns from recent months.

Oklahoma State Trooper Pension Fund Stolen

Malicious hackers recently stole more than $4.2 million from the Oklahoma State Trooper’s pension fund, which was to be used to assist roughly 1,500 retired law enforcement agents in the state. While most of the benefits programs should remain unaffected, officials are confident that they will be able to recover the funds, which would also be covered by insurance company if unable to be recovered.

The post Cyber News Rundown: Arizona School Ransomware Attack appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Employee Spotlight: Chat with Alia AlaaEldin Adly

Reading Time: ~ 3 min.

According to a report from hired.com, the demand for security engineers is up 132%. Additionally, the need for engineers who specialize in data analytics and machine learning has increased by 38% and 27%, respectively. Given recent trends in cybersecurity, it’s no wonder, and demand at Webroot is no exception. To be successful, our software engineers have to stay ahead of AI and machine learning trends so they can explore, work, grow, and effectively evolve tech in the cybersecurity industry.  

We talked to Alia AlaaElDin Adly, a software engineer based in Linz, Austria. In her role, Alia is constantly looking for new technology, testing platforms, and developing the new solutions to stay ahead of modern threats.  

What is your favorite part of working as a software engineer?

I enjoy exploring new technology and frameworks, specially figuring out problems by hand. Software engineers don’t always receive all the requirements up front, so we need to develop strategies and work on tasks without having all the pieces necessary to execute. For example, take the testing framework SpecFlow. We had to do a lot of research, have numerous brainstorming sessions, and rework the project outline to create a viable structure that would fit the needs of our APIs. It’s a fun challenge.

What does a week as a software engineer look like?

It really depends on the task at hand. Some tasks take a day or two, and others can take quite a bit longer. In planning, most tasks are designed to be completed in a maximum of two days, but, when you meet an unexpected obstacle and need to find a workaround, the task needs more time. Also, you have to factor in how much research or prototyping a task may require. One thing I can say about working at Webroot is that I am learning a lot. It’s like a rollercoaster ride: ups and downs, lefts and rights, spirals, and just when you think you’re done, even more spirals!

What have you learned / what skills have you built in this role?

When I started, I had pretty bad documentation habits. You hear a lot about the importance of documentation in school, but some lessons don’t really sink in until you have to face them in a real-world setting. I would say I still need to work on it, but my documentation has really improved! I am also getting better at having a proper project structure, and I’m really enjoying all the new tools and technologies I get to learn, like the Specflow framework and Xamarin forms.

What is your greatest accomplishment in your career at Webroot so far?

I work on the Unity API team based in Linz, Austria. The Webroot® Unity API is a platform that enables admins to dig deeper into the services and information Webroot offers. It’s a really useful tool for a lot of our customers, and I helped build out a automation testing framework to create smoke and regression tests for the API. Also, I managed and organized the end-of-year spotlight video that showcased what our team had accomplished.

What brought you to Webroot after your last job?

I was already in Austria completing my masters when I applied for the job. During the interview process, I liked how Webroot felt like a family. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming the day I started. Instead of making me feel like a nervous newcomer, they brought me in and helped me feel involved and important right away. And it has stayed that way.

Best career advice you’ve received?

To always be flexible and not limit yourself. You have to be curious not only about the world around you, but what you can do in it. If you keep your options open, you’re more likely to discover new strengths, and new (and exciting!) challenges to overcome.

What is your favorite thing to do in Linz?

I enjoy walking around in the city center and along the Danube River. I also like to go cycling, climbing, and running. During spring and summer, I usually bike to work and I like going to the lake to play beach racket. Of course, I love traveling and visiting new cities and countries! I feel very lucky that Webroot’s Linz office is in such a good location, which makes quick day trips and weekend travel really easy.

The post Employee Spotlight: Chat with Alia AlaaEldin Adly appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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13 Tech Experts Predict The Industry’s Biggest Challenges In 2019

How is your business preparing for change? This year is set to be the biggest year in tech ever, but some businesses are still struggling to incorporate the cloud that will make the most promising innovations possible. If you still need to modernize your IT, we can help. At PC PORTAL, we have industry experience helping businesses just like yours to modernize your desktop and IT.

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