Cyber pirates have found easy prey in real estate brokers, title agents and estate attorneys. Their emails are a treasure trove of information about pending transactions involving large wire transfers. Real estate buyers, eager to close the deal, blindly trust the email they receive and the advisors with whom they correspond. There are countless reports of home buyers who have wired their downpayment funds to cybercriminals posing as settlement agents, only to have the funds lo [...]

What do United Airlines and footballer David Beckham have in common? Disastrous leaked emails. In these recent cases, the leaked emails appear to be legitimate, though Beckham claims some of the leaked emails were “doctored.” But how do we know that leaked email messages discussed in news stories and tabloid columns are actually authentic? United Airlines’ PR Nightmare   United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz appears to have dug himself into a deep hole [...]

…and does it change the result? Who is responsible for the recent Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) hack and resulting emails published on WikiLeaks? Russian hackers are suspected and the FBI is investigating, but Russia adamantly denies involvement. The hackers could be from the same group who stole DNC’s oppositional research about Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump in mid-June. Perhaps, the perpetrator is simply a DNC employee or subcontractor disen [...]

Imposter emails targeting businesses today are far more sophisticated than traditional phishing emails or the “Nigerian prince” emails of yesteryear. These new Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks use imposter emails that reflect a deep understanding of people’s roles and messaging patterns within a target organization. Here’s how BEC attacks often play out for several reference industries: Law Firms and their Clients An email purporting t [...]