Lots of people these days are talking about cybersecurity. To many people, this conjures images of hackers delving deep into computer code to unearth and exploit systematic weaknesses. The reality is that many of the most successful cyber scams rely not on the weaknesses within a computer system but on the weaknesses of human beings.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The music artist Prince was found dead at his home in Minnesota Thursday morning. An autopsy will be done on Friday 4/22/2016.
Here’s why this is worth mentioning: usually when a musician passes away there is a bump in music downloads and people listen to streaming services to memorialize them. That’s usually all fine and good, album sales go up, there’s trending on twitter, and there is an overall virtual outpouring of support.
Unfortunately these sad times are the perfect opportunity for Social Engineering Scams. Celebrity Deaths (or even death rumors) are like natural disasters, holidays, and other major news stories. New websites are created, the high-demand content is scrubbed, dubious emails are drafted, and links to websites loaded with malware and viruses are circulated on social media.
It's the holidays for the criminals too, you know...
Social Engineering scams increase right around the holidays. With the increase of people shopping online and the odd-hours, hurried correspondence at work, it is getting harder to filter through which emails are legitimate and which ones could be a trap.
