article thumbnail

FBI: Spike in Hacked Police Emails, Fake Subpoenas

Krebs on Security

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is urging police departments and governments worldwide to beef up security around their email systems, citing a recent increase in cybercriminal services that use hacked police email accounts to send unauthorized subpoenas and customer data requests to U.S.-based based technology companies.

Hacking 303
article thumbnail

A Day in the Life of a Prolific Voice Phishing Crew

Krebs on Security

Besieged by scammers seeking to phish user accounts over the telephone, Apple and Google frequently caution that they will never reach out unbidden to users this way. The phishers also abused legitimate Google services to send Tony an email from google.com, and to send a Google account recovery prompt to all of his signed-in devices.

Phishing 343
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How to Lose a Fortune with Just One Bad Click

Krebs on Security

A scammer called using a real Google phone number to warn his Gmail account was being hacked, sent email security alerts directly from google.com, and ultimately seized control over the account by convincing him to click “yes” to a Google prompt on his mobile device.

article thumbnail

Social Engineering: Back to the Basics

Security Through Education

When I first heard of social engineering, about 6 years ago, I couldnt define it clearly and concisely if you had offered me millions of dollars. ’ Lets re-visit what social engineering really means, how people use it, and how you can start protecting yourself from it. Either way, lets refresh and learn together!

article thumbnail

Gmail’s multi-factor authentication bypassed by hackers to pull off targeted attacks

Malwarebytes

The hackers pulled this off by posing as US Department of State officials in advanced social engineering attacks, building a rapport with the target and then persuading them into creating app-specific passwords (app passwords). Here’s how to stay safe: Only use app passwords when absolutely necessary.

article thumbnail

Feds Charge Five Men in ‘Scattered Spider’ Roundup

Krebs on Security

That Joeleoli moniker registered on the cybercrime forum OGusers in 2018 with the email address joelebruh@gmail.com , which also was used to register accounts at several websites for a Joel Evans from North Carolina. Click to enlarge.

article thumbnail

Russian APT29 Exploits Gmail App Passwords to Bypass 2FA in Targeted Phishing Campaign

The Hacker News

Threat actors with suspected ties to Russia have been observed taking advantage of a Google account feature called application specific passwords (or app passwords) as part of a novel social engineering tactic designed to gain access to victims' emails.

Passwords 119