Dear Reader,
It's summer time, even though in many countries around the world it doesn't really feel that way (and, to be precise, it's only summer for half the world, geographically speaking)!
In this edition, we'd like to focus on two topics: social engineering and 5G security. You probably heard about the Twitter hack that compromised some 45 celebrity twitter accounts - an attack which apparently was made possible using a co-ordinated social engineering attack. Read below how social engineering works, how cybercriminals organize themselves and what you can do about it.
Also, we at Cybersecurity Magazine started a series of editorial podcasts detailing 5G security - you will find the videos in this newsletter, too.
Enjoy reading - and stay healthy!
We'll start with the infamous Twitter attack from last week. As cybersecurity experts, you will probably know what social engineering is, but we still recommend reading this article from our colleagues over at Business Insider:
Social Engineering and how to avoid it.
It's also no secret that social engineering is - and probably will be for the foreseeable future - the most effective technique for cyberattacks. In order to fight those techniques, you will need to know what they are. Our guest author Stephen Gailey explains the most common attacks here:
Engineers at work: How to identify and prevent the most common social engineering techniques in use today
Interestingly, while the attack on Twitter caught a lot of attention, another scheme was uncovered a while back which, from our perspective, was even worse. Apparently, "hiring" hackers is not only common, but entire companies build their business model on it. An organization dubbed "Dark Baisin" by Citizen Lab, a Canadian Research company, targeted thousands of individuals and institutions. Read about it here:Dark Basin - Uncovering a Massive Hack-For-Hire Operation
If you'd now think that this is unusual - think again. In fact, the image of a lone hacker sitting in his basement living off pizza and coke is pure Hollywood fantasy these days. The reality looks different, as guest author
The Cyber MAFIA: A Non-Traditional Organized Crime Threat of Pandemic Proportions
These kind of attacks and organized cybercrime will be something which will keep us busy in the future. One area those criminals will focus on will be 5G. In our editorial podcast, Dr. Anand Prasad together with Patrick Boch and Rajeev Prasad explain the pitfalls of 5G and give a holistic overview of 5G security.We started with a general overview of 5G security:
Editorial Podcast: 5G Security Overview
And moved on to elaborating on the relation between 5G, virtualization and containerization and security in the 2nd installment:
Editorial Podcast: 5G Security and Virtualization
Watch this space for more topics concerning 5G security in the next few weeks and months.
P.S.: Enjoyed reading this newsletter? Why not forward it to a friend or colleague? Signing up is easy, just click here and subscribe!