#proofpoint

Proofpoint has warned recruiters of a skilled threat actor targeting them with emails designed to deploy malware. TA4557 is a financially motivated threat actor known to distribute the More_Eggs backdoor, which is designed to establish persistence, profile the targeted machine and drop additional payloads. Throughout 2022 and most of 2023 the actor has been replying to open job listings on…

Contributed by Proofpoint, Fairfield University's email firewall vendor

Why Varying Your Passwords Is So Important

Passwords have long been considered a simple but effective way to protect equipment, data, and networks. But as we continue to use more and more devices, applications, and systems, the simplicity is fast being lost. With several devices and dozens of online services used daily — many of which are likely to have varying password policies — it can be next to impossible to keep track of our logins.

People cope with the sheer number of passwords they have in several ways. Unfortunately, the most common — and riskiest — approach is to reuse passwords. Why is this so dangerous? Because the loss of one password for one account — perhaps through malicious software, a phishing email, or a data breach on a website — could cascade into the loss of multiple accounts.

How might that happen? Let's say you use the same password for a social media account that you use for your email. Let's also say that hackers break into the social media site and steal all of the passwords there. Using special tools, these hackers can quickly tie passwords to users and users to email addresses. Once that happens, your accounts can be reset by the hackers and fall under their control.