Product Blog

Back in 2017, a startup presented a revolutionary product to the world, one that would allegedly change the way people breathe. Treepex, a portable device that cleans the air as you breathe sparked many conversations, causing it to become viral. Thousands of people viewed the product video. And the startup founders, Bacho Khachidze and Lasha Kvantaliani, even appeared in interviews from big news sites, including the Associated Press (AP) and The Huffington Post.

Business email compromise (BEC), also known as CEO fraud, whaling, email account compromise (EAC), or invoice fraud, is a tried-and-tested attack method. Since 2013, BEC scams have been responsible for close to $12 billion in company losses. And this figure continues to rise, as, in 2018 alone, the said scams cost victims $1.3 billion.

In this post, we will look more closely at two cases of invoice fraud that caused Facebook and Google to almost lose a total of $123 million just this year. We will also demonstrate how our Domain Research Suite (DRS) can help companies prevent their employees from falling for such attacks.

While search engine optimization (SEO) experts often advise first-time site owners to use an old domain to gain instant authority on the Web, security professionals would caution that the practice can be risky.

That said, we do think there’s a way for site owners to enjoy the benefits of using old domains with as few risks as possible. In this post, we’ll tell you how knowing the history of a domain’s ownership by using tools like WHOIS History Search can help. But first, let’s take a look at why cybersecurity specialists may have reservations about using old or expired domains.

Data breaches continue to plague organizations today. In the first six months of 2019 alone, 3,813 data breaches were recorded, exposing more than 4.1 billion records. This figure translates to more than a 50% increase in victim volume over the past four years. Worse still, three of these recently recorded data breaches made it to the all-time list of top incidents.

Of all these unfortunate events, we decided to take a closer at Equifax’s case. First, because it has been the financial sector’s biggest breach victim to date. Second, because it shows how cybercriminals insist on exploiting every vulnerability there is. It’s indeed possible that malicious entities are now trying to trick victims into disclosing more personally identifiable information (PII) on fake Equifax settlement websites.

When building their online presence, entrepreneurs and website owners are bombarded with tips and advice on search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. Among them are the publishing of high-quality and relevant content regularly, using metatags and alt tags, and using long-tail keywords.

All these are valid and effective, but your SEO ranking strategy should begin at the very first stage of website creation—choosing a domain name. In this post, we explored the effects of domain name ownership history on an organization’s SEO ranking, and how a simple check using WHOIS History Search can help users avoid related challenges.

Firewalls are an essential pillar of any enterprise network security strategy. They sift traffic coming in and going out of corporate networks, offering round-the-clock perimeter protection.

Even better are today’s next-generation firewalls (NGFWs), which bring interoperability and contextualization into the mix. These hybrid firewalls provide a more effective layer of protection as they combine both traditional firewalls with newer types.

Unfortunately, NGFWs and older versions for that matter are not the “be-all and end-all” of enterprise network security. They serve as a good starting point, but they also need to be appropriately configured to work — along with the right data feeds, which can include WHOIS history data, as this post will suggest.

That is why experts recommend taking a phased approach to high-end firewall deployment. Otherwise, compatibility issues may arise, which could expose the network to computer viruses, or worse still, advanced persistent threats (APTs).

With all of the business growth opportunities that the Web provides for e-commerce sites and brands operating online in general, also come responsibilities and risks.

Customer privacy and data, for one thing, must be safeguarded against cyber attacks — notably phishing and spam campaigns that could lead to fraud and information and identity theft. Indeed, personally identifiable information (PII) such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers, health records, and payment card information, among others, are often stolen and sold in underground markets or used in attacks. A quick black market survey, for instance, revealed that health records and passport information are sold for as much as $1,000 per set in cybercriminal one-stop shops.

The massive Yahoo! data breach that lasted from 2012 to 2016 is one of the most notable data breaches to date, with 3 billion accounts compromised. Users’ names, birthdays, email addresses, phone numbers, and even encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers were just some of the information stolen and potentially peddled in underground markets.

The good news is that those who have been affected can now claim benefits for the damages and losses they incurred. They can get two years of free credit monitoring or US$100–25,000 in cash as settlement for theft and potential fraud. Those interested can check if they are eligible for settlement payment by contacting the administrator of the official data breach settlement site, yahoodatabreachsettlement.com.