Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to sip tea and solve mysteries about today’s most interesting threats. Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by N2K Networks Dave Bittner and Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks.  Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective: you gather clues, analyze the evidence, and consult the experts to solve the cyber puzzle. On this episode, we talk about "The curious case of the missing IcedID." IcedID is a malware originally classified as a banking trojan and was first observed in 2017. It also acts as a loader for other malware, including ransomware, and was a favored payload used by multiple cybercriminal threat actors until fall 2023. Then, it all but disappeared. In its place, a new threat crawled: Latrodectus. Named after a spider, this new malware, created by the same people as IcedID, is now poised to take over where IcedID melted off. Today we look back at what happened to the once prominent payload, and what its successor’s spinning web of activity means for the overall landscape.

The process of stealing ATM customer credentials by means of physically and covertly installing one or more devices onto a public ATM machine.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story from a listener, who writes in on an AirBnB debacle he was dealing with. Joe shares the newly released 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon. Dave shares a story From the New York Magazine, written by Ezra Marcus, on a college sophomore from University of Miami who was found to be tangled up in a refund fraud scam that granted him a lavish lifestyle. Our catch of the day comes from Joe's mother this week. She happened to receive an email with the subject line being "your order is confirmed," coming from what looks to be "McAfee." Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: The Package King of Miami 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report 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@thecyberwire.com.

A nation-state hacking group’s practice of funding its town activities through cybercrime or cyber mercenary work.

This week, we are joined by host of 8th Layer Insights, Perry Carpenter from KnowBe4 and Dr. Jessica Barker from Cygenta to discuss human risk: awareness, behavior and beyond. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, the first being from Richard, who writes in to share some tips and tricks regarding relationship scams mentioned in a previous show. The second is from Michael, who writes in with some thoughts on social engineering to compromise open source projects from episode 288. Dave shares a story on researchers observing millions of daily emails from "Jenny Green," facilitated by the Phorpiex botnet, distributing LockBit 3.0 ransomware that has affected millions of people. Joe share's Paul Raffile's story, a gentleman who got fired from Facebook before he even started. Our catch of the day comes from listener Gordy who shared an email with us regarding his "McAfee security." Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: Security Experts Issue Jenny Green Email Warning For Millions LinkedIn Paul Raffile (Part 1) LinkedIn Paul Raffile (Part 2) Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

A device connected to a network that accepts communications from other endpoints like laptops, mobile devices, IoT equipment, routers, switches, and any tool on the security stack.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story about how ransomware infections are beginning to change to form a more psychological attack against victims' organizations, as criminals are using personal and aggressive tactics to force them to pay. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, from Bob, who writes in to share how he shares stories with his family members, and mentions one specifically on a Best Buy Geek Squad scam. Dave share's a story on bank scams, and how scammers are using genuine push notifications to trick their victims. Joe shares a story regarding email security loopholes, and how these loopholes are the latest path for North Korean social engineering attacks. Our catch of the day is from our follow up listener Bob, as he shares the story of trying to figure out the difference between a real email from the U.S social security department and a fake one. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: Ransomware crooks now SIM swap executives' kids to pressure their parents Bank scammers using genuine push notifications to trick their victims Email security loopholes are latest path for North Korean social engineering attacks 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@thecyberwire.com.

An extension of the traditional Basic Input/Output System or BIOS that, during the boot process, facilitates the communication between the computer’s firmware and the computer’s operating system.

Bogdan Botezatu from Bitdefender is discussing research on "Audio deepfakes: Celebrity-endorsed giveaway scams and fraudulent investment opportunities flood social media platforms." Dave and Joe shares some follow up from listener Lara, who writes in to discuss a few topics regarding a previous episode. Joe's story is sharing a game changer in the social engineering world. Dave shares the story of a listener's grandmother who had fallen victim to a pig butchering scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Kenneth who shares an email he received from a "Cardiologist" on some puppies. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: Audio deepfakes: Celebrity-endorsed giveaway scams and fraudulent investment opportunities flood social media platforms PCI DSS v4.0 a game-changer in social engineering awareness, prevention Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

An operating system program running in the background designed to perform a specific task when certain conditions or events occur.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story from Canada on a gentleman who thought he was calling Best Buy's Geek Squad, but instead ended up getting scammed out of $25,000. Dave and Joe share quite a bit of listener follow up, the first one is from Raul who shares how they saw an infamous Facebook scam. The second one is from listener Alec who shares some thoughts on episode 286's catch of the day. Lastly, Paula shares some thoughts on a recent discussion on why people are on the phone when a flight gets cancelled. Joe brings back answers to an old scam featured on an episode back in January on toll scams, as well as sharing about how the OpenSSF and OpenJS Foundations have issued an alert for social engineering takeovers of open source projects. Dave shares updates from the ex-athletic director accused of framing principal with AI and how he was arrested at the airport with a gun. Our catch of the day comes from listener Kenneth who shares an email from a "doctor" who has puppies for sale. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: An Ontario senior thought he called Geek Squad for help with his printer. Instead, he got scammed out of $25,000 Smishing Scam Regarding Debt for Road Toll Services Open Source Security (OpenSSF) and OpenJS Foundations Issue Alert for Social Engineering Takeovers of Open Source Projects Ex-athletic director accused of framing principal with AI arrested at airport with gun 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@thecyberwire.com.

Also known as spyware and adware, it is a software category where developers design the application neither to cause explicit harm nor to accomplish some conventional legitimate purpose, but when run, usually annoys the user and often performs actions that the developer did not disclose, and that the user regards as undesirable.

Roger Grimes, a Data Driven Defense Evangelist from KnowBe4 and author is discussing his new book, "Fighting Phishing: Everything You Can Do to Fight Social Engineering and Phishing." Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, the first being from listener Tim, who shares a story of him almost falling for a scam involving some of his investment assets. Lastly, Dave and Joe share a story from an anonymous listener who wrote in to share about a LinkedIn imposter nightmare. Dave's story focuses on a how the LabHost PhaaS platform was disrupted by a year-long global law enforcement operation, resulting in the arrest of 37 suspects, including the original developer. Joe shares the story of an 81 year old Ohio man, who was arrested after shooting a woman after both of them got wrapped up in a phone call scam. Our catch of the day comes from Robert, who writes in with what he believes is a email scam from a Chinese company called "Infoonity." Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: LabHost phishing service with 40,000 domains disrupted, 37 arrested Ohio Man - Daily Mail Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

An automatic software bug and vulnerability discovery technique that inputs invalid, unexpected and/or random data or fuzz into a program and then monitors the program's reaction to it.

Trevin Edgeworth, Red Team Practice Director at Bishop Fox, is discussing how change, like M&A, staff, tech, lack of clarity or even self-promotion within and around security environments presents windows of opportunity for attackers. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, the first one comes from Erin, who writes in from Northern Ireland, shares an interesting new find about scammers now keeping up with the news. The second one comes from listener Johnathan who shared thoughts on reconsidering his view on defining Apple's non-rate-limited MFA notifications as a "vulnerability." Lastly, we have follow up from listener Anders who shares an article on AI. Joe shares a story from Amazon sellers, and how they are being plagued in scam returns. Dave brings us the story of how to save yourself and your loved ones from AI robocalls. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: Theory Is All You Need: AI, Human Cognition, and Decision Making Amazon Sellers Plagued by Surge in Scam Returns How to Protect Yourself (and Your Loved Ones) From AI Scam Calls News Insights: Does X Mark a Target? with Trevin Edgeworth, Director of Red Team Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

A family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original Unix system built by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in the 1960s.

Dr. Robert Blumofe, CTO at Akamai, sits down to talk about the AI doomsday versus a "very bad day" scenario. Dave shares a story from The Knowledge Project Podcast, where the host talks to Adam Robinson, a multifaceted individual known for his work as an author, educator, entrepreneur, and hedge fund advisor, and he talks about what is all incorporated into the term "stupidity." Dave goes on to share that while most people may feel stupid when falling for a scam, this research suggests otherwise, and you should never feel that way for falling for any scam. Joe's story comes from Hayley Compton at BBC, and is on a Facebook scam sneaking it's way into a family's home after a couple just had their first child. Our catch of the day comes from listener Michael, who shares an email he received that caught him off guard at first. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: How Not to Be Stupid 'Facebook scammer tricked his way into our home' Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

A network monitoring and filtering technique that examines both the header information and the payload of every packet traversing a network access point.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story about Apple users reporting that they are being targeted in elaborate phishing attacks that involve's a bug in Apple’s password reset feature. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from Leo who shares some thoughts on episode 282 and the recruiter scam that was discussed. Dave shares a story from Mexico on one of the most violent criminal groups and drug cartels, Jalisco New Generation. They have been running call centers that offer to buy retirees’ vacation properties and then empty the victims’ bank accounts. Joe has the story of Facebook spying on users' Snapchats in a secret project. Our catch of the day comes from listener Van, who writes in to share a voicemail they received related to a tax scam. Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing! Links to the stories: Recent ‘MFA Bombing’ Attacks Targeting Apple Users A Mexican Drug Cartel’s New Target? Seniors and Their Timeshares Facebook snooped on users’ Snapchat traffic in secret project, documents reveal 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@thecyberwire.com.

A clandestine set of applications designed to give hackers access and control over a target device.