Social Engineering
Microsoft Teams to add brand impersonation warnings to calls
Microsoft will soon add new fraud protection features to Teams calls, warning users about external callers who attempt to impersonate trusted organizations in social engineering attacks. Named “Brand Impersonation Protection,” the new Teams security feature will start rolling out to the targeted release ring in mid-February and will be enabled by default. According to Microsoft, […]
Illinois man charged with hacking Snapchat accounts to steal nude photos
U.S. prosecutors have charged an Illinois man with orchestrating a phishing operation that allowed him to hack the Snapchat accounts of nearly 600 women to steal private photos and sell them online. Between May 2020 and February 2021, 26-year-old defendant Kyle Svara allegedly used various social engineering tactics to obtain victims’ emails, phone numbers, and […]
New ErrTraffic service enables ClickFix attacks via fake browser glitches
A new cybercrime tool called ErrTraffic allows threat actors to automate ClickFix attacks by generating ‘fake glitches’ on compromised websites to lure users into downloading payloads or following malicious instructions. The platform promises conversion rates as high as 60% and can determine the target system to deliver compatible payloads. ClickFix is a social engineering technique where targets […]
WhatsApp device linking abused in account hijacking attacks
Threat actors are abusing the legitimate device-linking feature to hijack WhatsApp accounts via pairing codes in a campaign dubbed GhostPairing. This type of attack does not require any authentication, as the victim is tricked into linking the attacker’s browser to a WhatsApp device. By doing so, threat actors gain access to the full conversation history and […]
University of Pennsylvania confirms data stolen in cyberattack
The University of Pennsylvania has confirmed that a hacker breached numerous internal systems related to the university’s development and alumni activities and stole data in a cyberattack. In a new statement, Penn confirmed GeekFeed’s reporting that the hackers breached its systems using compromised credentials, stating they were stolen in a social engineering attack. “On October 31, Penn discovered that […]
VC giant Insight Partners warns thousands after ransomware breach
New York-based venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners is notifying thousands of individuals whose personal information was stolen in a ransomware attack. The company disclosed the cybersecurity incident in February, when it said that a threat actor gained access to its network following a “sophisticated social engineering attack.” Two months later, Insight Partners confirmed that the […]
New FileFix attack uses steganography to drop StealC malware
A newly discovered FileFix social engineering attack impersonates Meta account suspension warnings to trick users into unknowingly installing the StealC infostealer malware. FileFix is a new variant of the ClickFix family of attacks, which uses social engineering attacks to trick users into pasting malicious commands into operating system dialog boxes as supposed “fixes” for problems. The FileFix technique was […]
Fashion giant Chanel hit in wave of Salesforce data theft attacks
French fashion giant Chanel is the latest company to suffer a data breach in an ongoing wave of Salesforce data theft attacks. Chanel says the breach was first detected on July 25th after threat actors gained access to a Chanel database hosted at a third-party service provider, as first reported by WWD. The breach only impacted customers […]
Scattered Spider is running a VMware ESXi hacking spree
Scattered Spider hackers have been aggressively targeting virtualized environments by attacking VMware ESXi hypervisors at U.S. companies in the retail, airline, transportation, and insurance sectors. According to the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GITG), the attackers keep employing their usual tactics that do not include vulnerability exploits but rely on perfectly executed social engineering “to bypass even […]
Allianz Life confirms data breach impacts majority of 1.4 million customers
Insurance company Allianz Life has confirmed that the personal information for the “majority” of its 1.4 million customers was exposed in a data breach that occurred earlier this month. “On July 16, 2025, a malicious threat actor gained access to a third-party, cloud-based CRM system used by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz […]