Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Defeat the scammers by educating yourself and your employees about these increasingly common tax-related scams.

More often, spam emails are similar to an unwelcome houseguest who wouldn’t go away. Opening your inbox to discover it filled with unwanted messages is a common and frustrating experience for many. Some are merely annoying advertisements vying for attention, while others take a more sinister approach, aiming to extort individuals from scams or infect gadgets with viruses. Therefore, being alert and discerning while navigating the internet is essential for avoiding threats.

Attacks targeting Swiss residents increased 10% last year, according to newly-released data that shows a growth in not just phishing attacks, but brand impersonation at purely a national level. The Swiss Federation’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) hosts a phishing site reporting tool where individuals and businesses can report suspicious websites and emails. They analyze and track reports, consolidating their findings annually into their Anti-Phishing Report.

Avast Business Web Control can help keep your business safer online.

Researchers at VIPRE Security observed a 276% increase in malware delivered by phishing between Q1 and Q4 of 2023. “Last year, our YARA rules caught between one and two million generic malware instances each quarter, with a nearly 20% jump in Q4,” VIPRE’s report says.

I recently read an article about a bright, sophisticated woman who fell victim to an unbelievable scam. By unbelievable, I mean most people reading or hearing about it could not believe it was successful. A group posing as an Amazon employee and various U.S. law enforcement agencies were able to convince a woman to take $50,000 out of her bank account in cash and hand it off to a complete stranger in the streets. It is a wild story and most of us would not be tricked into doing what happened to her.

Ten years ago, Congress passed the "CAN-SPAM Act" (also known as theYou-CAN-SPAM Act, since it defined legal spam and supersedes any stricter state-antispam laws). One of the provisions of the act is that there must be a legitimate physical address in the email. Spammers have long tried different tactics to get around this.

Just weeks after Trustwave SpiderLabs reported on the Greatness phishing-as-a-service (PaaS) framework, SpiderLabs’ Email Security team is tracking another PaaS called Tycoon Group. The team found Tycoon Group during a regular investigation into a phishing incident, and its distinctive method of communication to its phishing server convinced the team to further explore this active PaaS operation.