What Is Threat Intelligence? Understanding the Foundations of an Effective Threat Intel Program
Cyber threat intelligence positions security teams to understand, analyze, and act on important information in order to build up a company’s defense. The quality of your threat intelligence program directly correlates with how effectively your organization is able to protect itself from risks and keep sensitive data secure. What’s ahead: ... Read More
From TV to IRL: What ‘The Tinder Swindler’, ‘The Dropout’, and ‘Inventing Anna’ Can Teach Us About Real-Life Fraud
So far, 2022 has been the year of the scammer—for streaming services. From deception in romance to fake identities and hustling investors, three of the most high-profile cases of fraud have captured audiences for their shocking yet entertaining storylines, as depicted by The Tinder Swindler (a Netflix movie) The Dropout ... Read More
Definitive Guide to Ransomware: What It Is and How Your Organization Can Prevent, Detect, and Respond to a Ransomware Attack
Understanding Ransomware Ransomware threats have become a relevant part of any organization’s risk landscape awareness in the past few years as threat actors and their TTPs become more advanced and take on a more diverse range of targets. Understanding what ransomware is, what risk it presents for your organization, and ... Read More
What Does a Cyber Threat Intel Analyst Do? A Look at the Intelligence Professionals Who Bring Threat Intel Programs to Life
What is a threat intelligence analyst? A strong cyber threat intelligence program is your organization’s most valuable line of defense against attacks that harm your customer, users, data, assets, infrastructure, and personnel. Although high-quality intel is important, even the best threat intel can be useless without professionals to help your ... Read More
Top 10 Ransomware Trends: Board Responsibilities, Tracking Ransomware, and Mitigating Risk in 2022
From summer 2021 to early 2022, the ransomware ecosystem changed from high-profile, high-impact, big-game hunting activity to a period of relative quiet characterized by mid-level targets, higher ransom demands, and the first hacktivist ransomware attack on critical infrastructure. The ecosystem shift is primarily the result of three factors: the international ... Read More
Breach Forums Is Marketing Itself as a Raid Forums Successor
On March 16, just about three weeks after Raid Forums was seized, a threat actor named “pompompurin,” previously highly active on Raid Forums, launched an alternative illicit hacking community called Breach Forums. In the threat actor’s welcoming thread, “pompompurin” stated that they had created Breach Forums as an alternative to ... Read More
Your Data, Their Gain: How Threat Actors Leverage Tax Season to Commit Fraud
In 2020, the IRS identified over US$2.3 billion in tax fraud schemes, including tax return fraud. And in 2021, we identified 113 breaches which resulted in more than 69 million exposed records, including tax information, documents, and other sensitive data; this year, we’ve already identified 15 breaches and 3 million ... Read More
Funding and the Russia-Ukraine War: KYC for Crypto Transactions Proving Difficult
Click here for Flashpoint’s coverage of the role of intelligence in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Flashpoint analysts have uncovered 262 cryptocurrency addresses used in advertisements for donations to either Ukrainian or Russian causes related to the war since February 21, 2022. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine draws more need for financial ... Read More
Brute Force and Credential Stuffing Attacks: How Cyber Threat Actors Gain Access to Accounts—Plus Best Practices for Detection and Prevention
The prevalence of brute force and credential stuffing attacks Brute force and credential stuffing attacks are constant threats to organizations across the private and public sectors. Threat actors who carry out brute force and credential stuffing attacks typically do so to gain unauthorized entry to poorly secured bank, e-commerce, and ... Read More
ISIS Attacks, February 2022: Key Trends, Statistics, and Geographic Analysis
The following research is based on information gathered by Flashpoint analysts and data collections. For January’s report, click here. Key takeaways: February 2022 ISIS attacks Attacks claimed by ISIS worldwide in February were down at least 15-20 percent from the average monthly tally in the last six months. Although some ... Read More
