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Cybercriminals are increasingly utilizing sophisticated tactics, particularly infostealers, to target financial institutions. These malicious programs steal sensitive data, including login credentials, financial information, and personal details. The ‘Lumma Stealer’ malware, known for its use of fake CAPTCHA pages, has gained notoriety by infiltrating systems through phishing schemes and compromised game downloads. This trend is further amplified by the rise of social engineering scams, which involve manipulating individuals into divulging confidential information. The alarming increase in social engineering scams, particularly targeting financial institutions, has resulted in a 10-fold rise in reported incidents within a year. These scams account for a significant portion of digital banking fraud, highlighting the growing threat posed by these techniques. This highlights the need for robust security measures to mitigate the risks associated with these evolving cyberattacks.

The Black Basta ransomware group is employing increasingly sophisticated social engineering techniques to compromise organizations. The attackers now leverage Microsoft Teams chat messages to deceive targeted users and distribute malicious QR codes to gain initial access to their systems. Black Basta’s tactic involves overwhelming users with email spam, then reaching out through Teams, posing as legitimate help desk personnel to respond to support tickets generated by the initial spam campaign. This social engineering scheme aims to establish trust with users and convince them to download and install remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools, providing attackers with a foothold to deploy ransomware. Organizations should be aware of this evolving tactic and implement strong security awareness training to help employees identify and avoid these social engineering traps.