My parents have a 93-year-old neighbor who lives alone. They’ve lived across the street from each other for nearly 45 years, so it’s not uncommon for Hazel to call upon my parents for help with fixing something around the house or to come join her for a cup of tea.
But Hazel’s latest calamity wasn’t a health issue or a clogged sink. She’d been the victim of fraud scams. Despite having multiple conversations with her cable provider, her credit card company, and her bank, Hazel’s internet and phone service was shut off for non-payment (because the credit card that was linked to the autopay was maxed out unbeknownst to her). She’s a 93-year-old woman living alone. My mom recounted all of the ways in which Hazel had been scammed. When she received a fake bill that looked like one from her cable company, Hazel mailed in a check, but her bank showed her that it had actually been washed—then written to and cashed by someone else. Likely the same criminal who had maxed out her Discover card. I couldn’t help but think of others like her who don’t know how to identify a scam.
Hazel wisely called the Attorney General’s office to get some help. The spry and sharp-minded 93-year-old was empowered with the information needed to start the arduous process of rectifying the wrongs that had been done to her, but what the other 88,262 elderly Americans who have filed complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center with a cumulative loss amounting to roughly $3.1 billion?
Age aside, I know plenty of young people who have fallen victim to scams and misinformation or disinformation, repeatedly. In fact, the World Economic Forum published the 19th edition of The Global Risks Report 2024, which identified misinformation and cyber insecurity as two of the top 10 ranking global risks by severity over the short and long term.
How can we help? As professionals in the industry who are also members of the community, we get creative about different approaches to cybersecurity education. Some might feel compelled to take a page from Juraci Capataz’s book and offer educational events at our local libraries to our community members young and old. But we can also focus more on Secure By Design, one of the leading trends we saw come through the RSA Conference 2024 Call for Submissions.
To learn more about security awareness and cybersecurity education, explore the content available in our Library. Now let’s look at what else made industry headlines this week.
Jan. 12: Former FBI agent and current CISO at Arctic Wolf, Adam Marrè penned a commentary in Forbes in which he opined on the threat of misinformation campaigns in the 2024 election cycle.
Jan. 11: “Malware hunters at SentinelOne on Thursday flagged a newly discovered Python-based hacking tool being used by cybercriminals to hijack cloud platforms and payment services,” Security Week reported.
Jan. 11: A Bloomberg Law report noted, “A growing number of threat actors are using AI, including GenAI, to conduct cyberattacks, a trend we could expect to continue in 2024.”
Jan. 11: According to news from the University of Southern Mississippi, “The next generation of cybersecurity professionals receive extensive instruction and hands-on training to combat the ongoing threats.”
Jan. 10: Rob Joyce, Director of Cybersecurity at the National Security Agency (NSA) warned that hackers are using artificial intelligence (AI) in order to write stronger, more deceptive phishing emails in English.
Jan. 10: Reuters reported, “The hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's official account on X on Tuesday renewed concerns about the social media platform's security since its takeover by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022.”
Jan. 10: Hackers reportedly accessed the unencrypted data of HMG healthcare patients and employees in a breach that occurred back in November 2023.
Jan. 9: LoanDepot filed a cybersecurity incident with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is currently being investigated.
Jan. 8: According to Bleeping Computer, “The official Netgear and Hyundai MEA Twitter/X accounts (together with over 160,000 followers) are the latest hijacked to push scams designed to infect potential victims with cryptocurrency wallet drainer malware.”