MailGuard Blog

Do not be too quick to click everything you see in your inbox. Cybercriminals circulated a malicious email in the form of a fraudulent purchase order on Tuesday afternoon.

NSW Roads and Maritime Services becomes another victim of brandjacking by cybercriminals. 2 variants of hoax emails supposedly sent by the government agency arrived in inboxes yesterday.

In the biggest week of football finals, and coinciding with a surge in upcoming seasonal events, comes the latest email scam that invites recipients to ‘Download and Print Your eTickets.’

A batch of malicious emails is arriving in inboxes today. They are fraudulent invoices sent from a brandjacked UK based business, and are impersonating the software of MYOB. 

Keep an eye out for the latest DocuSign email scam that was circulating Wednesday (AEST). Masquerading as a credit application, the subjects generally relate to a ‘Credit Card Application’ or a ‘Loan Application.’

Popular coffee brand, FiveSenses, is the subject of the latest email scam. In yet another example of how cybercriminals attempt to brandjack trusted, well-known and familiar brands, the email includes a ‘Payment Advice’ in an attempt to trick coffee lovers, restaurant and café owners to investigate further.  

Take a second look before viewing an online remittance purportedly issued by MYOB. The well-known accounting software company is being mimicked in a phishing scam currently circulating.

The scam was first identified and blocked by MailGuard on Thursday, with subsequent runs continuing into Friday.

There has been a 2500% increase in the sale of cybercrime kits on the dark-web since 2016, said Angus Taylor MP, Australian Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security in a recent interview.
Taylor expressed his concern about this surge in online criminal activity. He noted that there has been “a high take-up of digital technologies” by Australian companies, but about 30% of smaller companies have inadequate cybersecurity measures in place. 

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just announced a new division specifically to handle cyber threats against critical infrastructure. The National Risk Management Center will manage cross-sector responses to cyber-threats against vital US assets like the recently exposed attacks against the US power grid.

In the lexicon of online security there are cybercriminals, black hat hackers (hackers who do crime), white hat hackers (hackers who help prevent cyber-attacks), hacktivists (hackers who use their skills for political causes) and then there are “bug bounty hunters.”

A July 13 Washington Post  article reported the indictment of 12 Russians accused of hacking the US Democratic Party in 2016.

The indictment documentation includes detailed information about the process the accused Russian hackers allegedly used to gain access to Democratic Party email accounts and networks.

The latest report released by the FBI’s internet crime division - IC3 - reveals that email-based social engineering attacks were the most commonly reported cybercrime category in 2017.

IC3 received 300,000 complaints in 2017, representing estimated losses of more than US$1.4 billion.

Have you come across the concept of cyber-ranges before? 

Cyber-ranges have arisen from the growing need to educate people about the way cybercrime works. The name of this new type of training serviceis derived from shooting ranges - safe places where people go to fire guns at targets - because a cyber-range is a safe environment for practising cybercrime defence.

The public image of Blockchain technology - especially cryptocurrency, it’s most visible application to date - is controversial, at best.

The example of a Blockchain system that most people are aware of is Bitcoin, and the history of that now famous cryptocurrency has been marred by high profile thefts that have tainted the public image of Blockchain in general.

"The imperative to do AI research is now not optional. We have to build better and better AI security systems because you can bet your life the criminal elements of the hacking world are busy developing AI weapons to attack us..." - Bill Rue.

Artificial Intelligence is one of those subjects that is constantly in the headlines at the moment; controversial, endlessly debated and widely misunderstood.