Target: Small Businesses

May 22, 2019

Legal Threats Make Powerful Phishing Lures

This post was originally published on this siteSome of the most convincing email phishing and malware attacks come disguised as nastygrams from a law firm. Such scams typically notify the recipient that he/she is being sued, and instruct them to review the attached file and respond within a few days — or else. Here’s a look at a recent spam campaign that peppered more than 100,000 business email addresses with fake legal threats harboring malware. On or around May 12, at least two antivirus firms began detecting booby-trapped Microsoft Word files that were sent along with some various of the […]
December 16, 2019

Inside ‘Evil Corp,’ a $100M Cybercrime Menace

This post was originally published on this siteThe U.S. Justice Department this month offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a Russian man indicted for allegedly orchestrating a vast, international cybercrime network that called itself “Evil Corp” and stole roughly $100 million from businesses and consumers. As it happens, for several years KrebsOnSecurity closely monitored the day-to-day communications and activities of the accused and his accomplices. What follows is an insider’s look at the back-end operations of this gang. Image: FBI The $5 million reward is being offered for 32 year-old Maksim V. Yakubets, […]
July 27, 2020

Business ID Theft Soars Amid COVID Closures

This post was originally published on this siteIdentity thieves who specialize in running up unauthorized lines of credit in the names of small businesses are having a field day with all of the closures and economic uncertainty wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. This story is about the victims of a particularly aggressive business ID theft ring that’s spent years targeting small businesses across the country and is now pivoting toward using that access for pandemic assistance loans and unemployment benefits. Most consumers are likely aware of the threat from identity theft, which occurs when crooks apply for […]