Title: Addressing the Surge in Investment Scams: Insights from Fraud Specialist Ken Westbrook The FBI has reported a stunning 38% increase in losses attributed to investment scams in the past year, highlighting a troubling trend in cybercrime. Ken Westbrook, founder and CEO of Stop Scams Alliance, identified that scammers are…
The British government is currently contemplating new legislation aimed at addressing the persistent issue of ransomware attacks. This proposed regulation would mandate that organizations report all payments made to ransomware groups and additionally prohibit public sector entities from paying such extortion demands altogether. Targeting critical national infrastructure and public sector…
Fraud Management & Cybercrime, Ransomware, Regulation Also: Integrating AML and Fraud Initiatives; the Global AI Arms Race Anna Delaney (annamadeline) • January 17, 2025 Clockwise, from top left: Anna Delaney, Mathew Schwartz, Suparna Goswami, and Tony Morbin This week, editors at ISMG convened to analyze a proposal in the U.K.…
Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks, Fraud Management & Cybercrime, Standards, Regulations & Compliance U.S. Treasury Implements Sanctions Amid Cybersecurity Breaches David Perera (@daveperera) • January 17, 2025 Image: Shutterstock On January 17, 2025, the U.S. federal government announced that it has successfully traced intrusions by Chinese hackers targeting telecommunications networks back…
Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks, Fraud Management & Cybercrime, Geo Focus: Asia Hackers Exploit Malicious Macros in Diplomatic Documents to Target Asian Nations Prajeet Nair (@prajeetspeaks) • January 15, 2025 The Nur-Sultan Astana Government Building of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Image: Shutterstock) Recent developments indicate that hackers, potentially affiliated with the…
Cloud Security, Cybercrime, Fraud Management & Cybercrime Ransomware Group ‘Codefinger’ Targets Cloud-Based Resources Prajeet Nair (@prajeetspeaks) • January 14, 2025 Image: Shutterstock A ransomware campaign has been identified targeting Amazon S3 buckets, aiming to exploit the sensitive data stored within them. The attackers utilize AWS’s server-side encryption with customer-specific keys,…
The United Kingdom is set to implement a transformative measure in its strategy against ransomware attacks, instituting a formal prohibition on ransom payments. This regulation will primarily affect public and critical infrastructure sectors, including essential entities such as educational institutions, transportation systems, hospitals (notably the NHS), and financial organizations including…
Fraud Management and Cybercrime: Lessons from a Recent Ransomware Attack On January 10, 2025, PowerSchool, a significant provider of K-12 student information systems, revealed a data breach that has raised concerns among schools, students, and parents. The California-based company reported that unauthorized actors had stolen vast amounts of student data…
PowerSchool, a prominent player in educational technology, has recently reported a significant data breach affecting millions of students and teachers. The incident, announced on January 7, followed the company’s discovery of unauthorized access to its systems on December 28. Hackers infiltrated PowerSchool’s infrastructure via the PowerSource support portal, exploiting stolen…
