The purpose of the Information Security Project is to explore and learn about the dangers and the risks when it comes to online security, cyber attacks, and how exposed our devices can be.
Information Security Project
1.) Sequoia Capital is hacked due to phishing scam.
· This article shares the incident in which Sequoia Capital, one of the biggest venture capital firms, fell victim to a phishing scam in which one of their employees had their email phished and it led to personal and financial information being compromised. Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target is contacted through either email, text, or telephone by someone who is posing to be a legitimate institution. They try to lure people to have them give out sensitive personal information like credit card information, passwords, etc. Phishing scams like these can be preventable by doing research and knowing how they look like, try to stay updated with the latest phishing scams, try not to click on links sent you by emails, make sure to check that the sender is the right one, there may be even the slightest of difference in the sender information. Do not give your information to an unsecured website and try to rotate your passwords regularly.
2.) Domestic Kitten hacking group strikes local citizens considered a threat to Iranian regime.
· The article shares the incident of a hacking group called Domestic Kitten in which they have been linked to attacks against domestic citizens. It is believed that the targets could be regime dissidents, civil rights activists, journalists, and lawyers. This group uses a mobile malware named Furball, once downloaded by the target’s device, Furball can intercept SMS messages, call logs, gather device information, record communication, steal stored files, etc. The best way to protect yourself from hackings like this is to avoid downloading not so well-known apps and avoid browsing unsecured websites.
3.) Tampa teen accused in Twitter hack offered plea.
· The article is about a teenager who managed to hack multiple celebrity twitter accounts and using them to collect Bitcoin donations by manipulating twitter employees. Even though it was just a teenager, this goes to show that if someone were willing to do worse things, it is not that difficult to get your account and information hacked. To avoid this from happening everyone should make every single one of their passwords very complex, try not to use the same password for multiple websites/accounts.