CYBERSECURITY

Fake it ’til you take it

Add “courier” to the list of professionals that hackers are impersonating for their own gains.

In a public service announcement Monday, the FBI revealed scammers—and in-person scammer couriers—are taking money and assets from unsuspecting victims. The announcement of the fraud spike is another recent example of cybercriminals taking a more personal, less technical tactic.

“Scammers sometimes use a multi-layered approach, posing, in succession, as a technology company, a financial institution, and a US government official,” the agency said in its advisory.

According to the alert, step one of the scheme involves the posers informing victims, “many of whom are senior citizens,” that their financial accounts have been hacked and they need to protect their funds by liquidating assets into cash or precious metals like gold or silver. Step two is the pickup, when a courier retrieves the cash at the victim’s home or a public location.

Read more here.—BH

PRESENTED BY VEEAM

You know what they say

“The best offense is a strong defense,” and ohhh does that ring true when it comes to data. It’s the lifeblood of business these days, so it’s absolutely imperative to keep data safe and secure from ransomware, natural disasters, simple human errors—the works.

Good thing there’s Veeam. Trusted by more than 80% of the Fortune 500 to protect and restore data, Veeam’s committed to helping every company become radically resilient. This allows you to bounce forward from any disruption and crush your goals.

Curious about how Veeam’s enterprise-grade solutions can help you? Say hi to:

• multilayered protection
• secure-by-design architecture across your hybrid cloud
• fast, clean, and reliable recovery
• total ownership and control of your data

Secure your fort.

CYBERSECURITY

NK’s LNKs

A threat actor believed to operate on behalf of the North Korean government is continuing to target media organizations and academics—and its newest malware indicates it’s on the hunt for insider tips against cybersecurity pros, according to SentinelLabs.

Over the last two months of 2023, ScarCruft hackers busied themselves targeting media organizations and academics specializing in North Korean affairs, SentinelLabs researchers wrote in a report. The researchers also acquired samples of ScarCruft malware that appeared to reflect various stages of development, shedding light on potential future attacks.

SentinelLabs researchers observed ScarCruft hackers use phishing emails to distribute the RokRAT backdoor malware, which the security firm describes as a “fully featured backdoor” useful for surveillance purposes. In one of the attacks, a suspected member of the group impersonating a member of the Seoul-based North Korea Research Institute distributed an archive via email that supposedly contained presentation materials from a recent human rights meeting.

Alongside innocuous materials, the archive contained malicious LNK files—Windows shortcut files that have become a popular vehicle for hackers after Microsoft took steps to limit malware via macros in 2022. According to SentinelLabs, RokRAT attacks utilize public cloud services to disguise command and control communications as legitimate traffic.

Read more here.—TM

IT OPERATIONS

RTO or GT*O

IBM has a message for managers: Get to your desk or get lost.

In a memo sent mid-January, IBM SVP John Granger ordered all managers in the US to report to the office at least three days a week “regardless of current work location status,” effective immediately and to be enforced via badge-swipe data, Bloomberg reported.

The memo also notified managers who have been working from too far afield to commute to relocate by August, according to Bloomberg, with one source saying they understood the directive to be an order to move within 50 miles of an IBM office.

Granger reportedly warned that barring exceptions such as medical issues, managers who cannot meet these requirements, and who cannot transfer to a job with looser in-person requirements, will “separate from IBM.”

Keep reading here.—TM

FROM THE CREW

Let us make you smarter. Did you know you can listen to and/or watch the wittiest and smartest takes on business news? Morning Brew Daily covers everything from the latest headlines on the economy to explanations of viral TikTok trends. Find it on YouTube and all podcasting platforms.

PATCH NOTES

JOBS