Axial Networks

09/05/2024

HOW TO DEAL WITH FB IMPERSONATERS:
I just want to share the process of dealing with scammers who copy and imitate other peoples accounts for the purpose of gaining trust and scamming funds. Just to be clear: YOUR FRIENDS ACCOUNT HAS NOT BEEN HACKED. Their profile has been copied. If we all don’t panic and take these steps no one will get hurt.

Today my good friend Helen was the target. A friend request popped up and I knew immediately it wasn’t the real Helen. I phoned her to confirm.
It’s really important, to protect your friends and yourself, to stop these people in their tracks, that you take these steps.
1. Look at the request. Does it say “this profile was created recently”? Does it say “Using Messenger without Facebook.
That plus knowing you ARE ALREADY FRIENDS are the big red flags.
2. Take a screen shot, send it to your friend who is being impersonated and confirm it’s not them.
3. Hit Block. A screen will slide upfron the bottom.
Hit Report. Another screen will appear giving you multiple choice of why you are reporting this.
Select: Pretending to be someone.
4. Another screen will appear listing your friends. Choose the person being impersonated
5. The next screen urges you to submit a report. This is critical. Submit it.
6. You will be thanked.
7. Go back to Message requests and slide to delete so you don’t get confused later.
Done. Move on. Do this process again the next time you get a random friend request from someone you are already friends with.

12/10/2018

I heard a story this week from a colleague whose cousin has a concreting business and had emailed an invoice to a customer for $60K. The customer subsequently received a second email "appearing" to be from the concreter stating they had new bank details into which the customer then paid the $60K . Ten days later the concreter called to chase up the payment only to hear the customer had paid it into their "new bank account" a week ago as requested.

The fraudsters are $60k better off, the concreter can't pay his suppliers and the customer is being sued for the money (which has already gone!).Do you really think the bank will cop a $60k loss and give the customer their money back?

This situation (known as Man In The Middle Attacks) are becoming extremely common and are avoidable with proper processes in place through your supply chain. I have been warning my clients about this type of cyber fraud for a long time. Also, consider cyber insurance however it may be harder for the concreter to have cover for this situation.

If you have any contacts who require the services of a Cyber Security Architect to assist management in assessing and designing sound Information Security Solutions (of which Cyber is only part of it) please do not hesitate to forward my details on.

25/10/2017

BREAKING NEWS - BAD RABBIT ransomware asks you to update Adobe Flash to execute its payload

The Bad Rabbit ransomware outbreak is spreading into Europe from Russia

21/11/2016

Received an SVG file in Facebook - is it Malware - Quite Possibly

http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/143141/i-received-a-suspicious-svg-file-via-facebook-message-what-does-it-do

What is this file attempting to do?

05/09/2016

SCAM update
Please be aware of scams like this one appearing to be from Apple re iCloud Care. Do not click the link or provide details. Also note the senders are never apple.

20/07/2016

Moving offices today and culling out my IT stock so GIVING AWAY Mouse Mats, Power Cables, Fan Motors, Power Switches, Ribbon Cables, Serial Cards, Back up tapes, Serial Port Extenders and much more but you need to.be quick!

Like Axial Networks on Facebook and share this post then pop down to Unit 1 (this week) or Unit 2 (next week) 45-47 Salisbury Rd Asquith 2077 to grab what you need!

15/07/2016

What happens when Cyber Criminals impersonate an Australian Government Agency?

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/beware-of-business-scams-impersonating-the-accc

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is warning businesses to watch out for scam emails that claim to be from the ACCC but in fact contain links that can infect your computer with malware.

09/06/2016

This article demonstrates just how significant the threat is becoming.
Staff training and making sure you have all the Protective and Disaster Recovery measures in place to recover your business is more critical than ever.

Axial Networks is now offering a range of vulnerability scanning services in conjunction with Staff Awareness Training.

March was a bad month.

02/06/2016

THREE URGENT SECURITY WARNINGS TODAY

1. DO YOU HAVE A LENOVO? Vulnerability Alert
2. AGL Phishing emails leading to RANSOMWARE
3. Social networking sites Reddit, Tumblr and Myspace compromised - change your passwords


You may have seen several urgent warnings today from various anti-virus and government sites.

I draw your attention to the one from Australian Government - Stay Smart Online web site regarding Lenovo pre-installed software
As you know I recommend Lenovo Business Grade equipment

None of the equipment supplied by Axial Networks has this vulnerability as the software in question is not installed on the Lenovo Business Grade equipment we source and supply.

IMPORTANT - If you have independently purchased Lenovo equipment from a retail outlet (Harvey Norman, Officeworks, JB HiFi, etc), or the Lenovo Online shop (LENOVO-AP)or a local computer shop it is critical that you check whether you have one of the systems listed on this web page https://support.lenovo.com/au/en/product_security/len_6718 as these sellers generally supply domestic grade equipment which could have this vulnerability.

There are two other URGENT warnings today:
1. A very authentic looking AGL phishing email which will launch a RANSOMWARE attack
https://www.agl.com.au/about-agl/media-centre/article-list/2016/june/agl-customers-targeted-by-email-scam

2. “You are advised to change your social media passwords following a series of reports about data leaks, including email addresses and passwords from social networking sites Reddit, Tumblr and Myspace”. Source (Stay Smart Online [email protected])

Reddit blog
https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4l60nc/reddit_account_security_and_you

Tumblr blog
https://staff.tumblr.com/post/144263069415/we-recently-learned-that-a-third-party-had

Myspace blog
https://myspace.com/pages/blog

If you need any assistance do not hesitate to contact Axial Networks .

A vulnerability was identified in the Lenovo Accelerator Application software which could lead to exploitation by an attacker with man-in-the-middle capabilities. The vulnerability resides within the update mechanism where a Lenovo server is queried to identify if application updates are available.…