Tag: Phishing
If you missed parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this blog series, it’s probably worth visiting these links to understand why phishing scams are becoming so rampant. Information about individuals and corporations is readily available and easy to find on the Internet, making it easy for attackers to pull phishing schemes together—and with great success. None of the bits…
Read MoreEmail Headers An excellent source of internal configuration information can be gleaned from email headers. Attackers can simply fire off a few email inquiries to folks at an organization and see what they can find. Here’s a typical email header using our example company, Boring Aeroplanes, from our phishing example. Note both internal and…
Read MoreMy favorite color, by the way, is black. Or at least it will be until something darker comes along. While marginally better than asking for personal information that is just as easily discovered on the web —your mother’s maiden name, where you were born (my mother claims it was in a barn based on my…
Read MoreWe also analyzed the primary root causes of the breaches, how that varied in breach remediation costs by industry, and the impact of these breaches on each data type breached on the global scale. The purpose of our analysis was to identify where organizations are most likely to be attacked in a way that…
Read MoreWe’re celebrating our one-year anniversary here at F5 Labs, the application threat intelligence division of F5! Although F5 researchers have been providing threat-related, F5-specific guidance to our customers for many years through DevCentral, the time was right a year ago today to launch a dedicated website that provides the general public with vendor-neutral, application-focused, actionable…
Read MoreEmail attachment containing wire transfer instructions Many buyers, in their eagerness to follow instructions to the letter so they can get into their new homes quickly, have followed similar wiring instructions and found themselves not only without a new home but stripped of their entire life savings—stolen by scammers. It nearly happened to Brown…
Read MoreCISOs could always use more help, it’s as simple as that. As part of an upcoming report on protecting applications, F5 engaged Ponemon to survey security professionals. The survey found that 44% of respondents reported “lack of skilled or expert personnel” as the “main barrier to achieving a strong application security posture.” Our previous F5…
Read MoreIn the F5 and Ponemon report, The Evolving Role of CISOs and their Importance to the Business, security leaders were asked to rank their top threats to their security ecosystem. The number one answer was advanced persistent threats (ranked 8.8 out of 10). We’ve already talked about why CISOs should manage the most likely damaging…
Read MoreThere’s an old joke that a job in security is a safe place to be grumpy. From what I’ve seen over my career, that is often true. Security people seem to cherish their reputation for being pessimistic and untrusting. Some take it further and cast their disdain upon the users, who obviously need to be…
Read MoreBecause of an international criminal act, you can get a cheap morning latte. Historically, the country of Yemen had a monopoly on coffee, forbidding the export of the plants and seeds—their intellectual property. However, in 1616, a Dutch merchant managed to smuggle out a few coffee plants from the city of Mocha in Yemen. Holland…
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