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N2K Networks

Deception, influence, and social engineering in the world of cyber crime.

Hacking Humans

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes.
Cybercriminals who lack the expertise to write their own programs use existing scripts, code, or tools authored by other more skilled hackers.

script kiddies (noun) [Word Notes]

On Hacking Humans, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are once again sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines to help our audience become aware of what is out there. This week, Maria shares two stories this week, the first is from "PayPal" saying they are owed over $200. The second comes from LinkedIn where a gentleman shares the terrifying story of losing everything all because of a scam. Joe's story is on text message scams where strangers pretend to know you, building trust over time to lure victims into schemes like cryptocurrency fraud; he advises ignoring unknown messages, blocking suspicious numbers, avoiding links, and protecting personal information. Dave's story follows Silent Push Threat Analysts tracking "Payroll Pirates," a group leveraging phishing campaigns targeting HR systems like Workday to redirect payroll funds by using search ads, spoofed websites, and credential harvesting, as they alert organizations and share threat intelligence to counter these sophisticated attacks. Our catch of the day comes from a phishing scam email claiming to offer a $1.75 million compensation fund via the "United Bank for Africa," requiring victims to share personal and banking details under the guise of an IMF directive.
Resources and links to stories: 

“Wrong Number” Text Scams on the Rise

Hunting Payroll Pirates: Silent Push Tracks HR Redirect Phishing Scam

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

Silent push, loud consequences.

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. 
A collection of people, process, and technology that provides an organization the ability to detect and respond to cyber attacks.

incident response (noun) [Word Notes]

On Hacking Humans, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are once again sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines to help our audience become aware of what is out there. First we start off with some follow up, our hosts share some more information on VIN swapping, and a clarification on bank participation in FinCEN. Maria shares a telling tale about a Bethesda couple loosing $367,000 in gold bars to a sophisticated scam involving fake officials and elaborate deceptions, but a police sting led to the arrest of a suspect, highlighting a growing nationwide trend of elderly victims targeted by gold bar fraud. Joe's story comes from KnowBe4 and is on DavidB, their VP of Asia Pacific, thwarting a sophisticated social engineering attack via WhatsApp by recognizing inconsistencies in the impersonator’s behavior and verifying directly with the colleague they claimed to be. Dave's story comes from the FBI on how criminals are exploiting generative AI to enhance fraud schemes, including using AI-generated text, images, audio, and video to create convincing social engineering attacks, phishing scams, and identity fraud, while offering tips to protect against these threats. Our catch of the day comes from a listener who received an urgent email from someone claiming to be an FBI agent with a rather dramatic tale about intercepted consignment boxes, missing documents, and a ticking clock—but let's just say this "agent" might need some better training in both law enforcement and grammar.
Resources and links to stories: 

“VIN swap scam costs Las Vegas man $50K, new truck"

FinCEN

Gold bar scammers claimed hackers could fund Russian missiles, police say

Real Social Engineering Attack on KnowBe4 Employee Foiled

Criminals Use Generative Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Financial Fraud

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

Gold bars and bold lies.

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. 
A supply chain cybersecurity accreditation standard designed for the protection of controlled unclassified information that the U.S. Department of Defense, or DoD, will require for all contract bids by October, 2025.

cybersecurity maturity model certification (CMMC) (noun) [Word Notes]

In this premier episode of the Hacking Humans podcast, cohosts Dave Bittner from the CyberWire and Joe Carrigan from the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute discuss noteworthy social engineering schemes and ways to detect them. 
Author Christopher Hadnagy discusses his book The Art of Human Hacking.

Social Engineering works because we're human.

In this episode, Joe examines the anatomy of a phishing attack, Dave explores pretexting, and a scammer targets real estate agents. 
Professor Stephen Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol joins us to share his research on misinformation, fake news, and inoculating people against them.

A flood of misinformation and fake news.

Joe warns of scammers taking advantage of natural disasters, Dave explores romance scams, and gets a strange voice mail. 
Stephen Frank from the National Hockey League Players Association joins us to share how professional athletes protect themselves from online scams.

Gaming pro athletes online.

Joe explains the Ben Franklin effect. Dave describes job applicants tricked unto money laundering. A listener tells a tale of being fooled by an appeal to greed. Joe interviews Stacey Cameron from DirectDefense about her physical penetration testing work.

Playing on kindness.

Dave shares a story of airport penetration testing with high degree of yuck-factor. Joe explores research on protecting passwords from social engineering. The catch-of-the-day comes courtesy of Graham Cluley's email spam box. Dave interviews Wired's Security Staff Writer Lily Hay Newman on her article tracking Nigerian email scammers. 
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Separating fools from money.

Joe warns of a harrowing phone scam technique, Dave reveals an alternate persona, a listener tries to sell a truck, and Carole Theriault from the Smashing Security Podcast interviews Sophos' Paul Ducklin.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Phone scams, phantom employees and sitting Ducks.

Phone scams, phantom employees and sitting Ducks.

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