Posts by Conduit Security

I know I have, and I bet you have too! There is an old saying attributed to Winston Churchill….“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”  In 2023 wire fraud bad guys and cyber criminals have spun this slightly to “Never let a banking crisis go to waste.”  A banking shock like we are experiencing…

When companies work on cyber security, they invest time and money to stop breaches, ransomware and malware.  When it comes to wire fraud, the fastest growing crime, they do not.  With wire fraud, the bad guys are looking to hack humans, not machines, so the typical response is to just have the humans “handle it.”  …

What role will artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, play in wire fraud and other social engineering scams?

At Conduit, we know there are some elements that make Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers safer at the margins when compared to wires, because they are slower and “technically” reversible. However, ACH transfers often get less attention at companies, so are behaviorally more dangerous because they are believed to be safer! Criminals don’t care and…

One of the most well-known examples of how checklists can save lives comes with Captain Sullenberger. Even after a flock of birds took out both of his plane engines, he still made time to look at his Quick Reference Handbook to follow the steps in order to land the plane as safely as possible. If…

A recent ruling in a Minnesota District Court distinguished between social engineering and computer fraud. Most important for your business: understand your coverage and the pitfalls. In summary, the victim in this case fell for a garden variety Business Email Compromise (BEC) based wire fraud. Like many of the victims Conduit has worked with, this…

If you have heard of or seen some of its work already, DALL-E-2 is an AI artist that creates original art in seconds from a descriptive sentence. After DALL-E-2’s “Last Selfies on Earth” made news this month, I decided to see what the AI would produce for a victim of wire fraud. My Artistic Critique…

            Given a low likelihood of recovery, wire fraud is severely underreported.  Since nearly all perpetrators are located outside of the US, criminals get your money with few repercussions.  This does not mean, however, that these criminals are unstoppable. They tend to follow trends: one example is increased fraud attempts around national holidays.  Holidays provide…

Brief History Most people are familiar with the “Nigerian Prince” scams of the 1990’s.  What many don’t realize is that these “419” scams are the precursors to today’s business email compromise (wire fraud) scams.  While the geography of wire fraud has greatly expanded over the last few years, many wire fraud criminals are still located…