Posts exploring how attackers steal usernames, passwords, and authentication tokens through phishing, keylogging, brute force attacks, and credential stuffing. Includes actionable guidance on multi-factor authentication, password managers, and monitoring for compromised credentials.
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In February 2024, Change Healthcare — the largest medical claims processor in the United States — was hit by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group. The attack disrupted billing systems at hospitals and pharmacies nationwide for weeks. The entry point? Stolen credentials used on a remote access portal that lacked multi-factor authentication. One
A Single Fake Email Cost Facebook and Google $100 Million Between 2013 and 2015, a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas sent a series of fake email messages to employees at Facebook and Google. He impersonated a legitimate hardware vendor, attached fraudulent invoices, and directed payments to bank accounts he controlled.
In January 2024, a finance employee at a multinational engineering firm in Hong Kong wired $25 million to threat actors after a video call with what appeared to be the company's CFO. The call was a deepfake. But the attack started weeks earlier — with a single spear phishing
In 2019, a Lithuanian national named Evaldas Rimasauskas pleaded guilty to stealing over $120 million from Google and Facebook using a sophisticated man in the middle attack scheme. He impersonated a legitimate hardware vendor, intercepted invoice communications, and redirected payments to bank accounts he controlled. The scheme ran for two
A $38 Million SIM Swap Should Settle This Debate In January 2024, the SEC's official X (formerly Twitter) account was hijacked. The attacker used a SIM swap to intercept SMS verification codes, then posted a fake announcement about Bitcoin ETF approval that briefly moved markets. The most powerful
That Google Alert in Your Inbox Might Be Real — Or It Might Be the Attack Itself Last year, a finance director at a mid-size logistics company got a Gmail account access warning that looked completely legitimate. It warned of a sign-in from an unrecognized device in another country. She clicked
In 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 298,000 phishing complaints — making it the most reported cybercrime category for the fifth consecutive year. And those are just the ones people actually reported. If you're asking what is phishing, you're asking the
In 2023, MGM Resorts lost roughly $100 million after a threat actor called Scattered Spider social-engineered the company's IT help desk with a single phone call. The attacker impersonated an employee, convinced the help desk to reset credentials, and within hours had burrowed deep enough to deploy ransomware
Your Employees' Passwords Are Probably Already There In 2024, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion — and a significant chunk of that activity traces back to credentials and data bought and sold on the dark
Your Employees' Phones Are the Weakest Link In March 2024, MGM Resorts was still dealing with the fallout of a social engineering attack that started with a simple phone call. But here's what most people missed in the post-incident analysis: the reconnaissance that made that attack possible
