Social engineering attacks are a type of cybercrime designed to exploit human weakness by using psychological manipulation to trick individuals into divulging sensitive information or performing actions that may be against their own interests. Financially motivated, the goal of these attacks is usually to gain access to confidential information or systems that the threat actors can then leverage for fraudulent or malicious purposes.

2018 Apple ID Phishing Scam

Increase in Mobile Phishing Scams Targeting Apple ID Users

A trend forming among newly identified phishing URLs shows bad actors sending fraudulent emails informing Apple ID users of outdated Apple ID information or problems with billing. The emails and internal links attempt to deceive Apple ID users into “verifying” account information. When the user proceeds to log in, the form handing over access credentials to their accounts.

Experiment Raises Online Privacy Eyebrow

People don’t seem to worry much about privacy when “checking in” to a favorite local restaurant or coffee shop, or from other social media posts that reveal one’s location. What if you were approached by a complete stranger who knew your name and other personally indefinable information within minutes after making an upload? A few socialites got quite the shock after a social media experiment revealed how much personal information can be extracted from publicly viewable status updates.