You get a message from someone you don’t know. Maybe it’s a simple “Hi,” a supposed wrong number, or a random person who somehow seems very interested in your life. You start talking. They seem friendly. Then surprisingly attentive. Eventually,…
The words serial killer and spree killer are often thrown around in movies, documentaries, and news headlines as if they mean the same thing. They both involve multiple victims, which is probably where the confusion starts. But in criminal investigations,…
You type a website address a little too fast, hit Enter with complete confidence, and immediately realize you’ve spelled it wrong. Usually, it’s harmless. You laugh, press Backspace, and try again. Unfortunately, cybercriminals know this happens too, and some of…
Television has convinced us that criminal profilers can glance at a crime scene and instantly reconstruct an offender’s personality, habits, and life story. Reality is considerably less dramatic, but far more interesting. Criminal profiling is neither mind reading nor investigative…
In cybersecurity, we often spend millions of dollars and countless hours studying the threat actor. We map infrastructure, dissect malware, and reverse-engineer code. But any experienced security consultant knows that looking at the exploit only tells part of the story.…
A spear phishing attack is a precision-guided digital strike, far more refined than the chaotic, wide-net approach of standard phishing. While common phishing is like trawling the entire ocean hoping for any catch, spear phishing is the cyber equivalent of…
When people think about threats to a company, they usually imagine hooded hackers sitting in dark rooms, furiously typing while green text scrolls across their screens. Hollywood has done an excellent job of selling that image. In reality, however, some…
When people hear the word “forensics,” they usually imagine crime scenes, fingerprint powder, or somebody in sunglasses dramatically removing their gloves before announcing the victim died “between 8:13 and 8:17 PM.” But not all investigations happen in dark alleys or…
In the business world, companies rebrand when sales are down, public image is damaged, or somebody in marketing decides the logo needs to look “more modern.” In the ransomware world, the process is surprisingly similar… except the company is committing…
If you spend enough time reading about cyberattacks, criminal investigations, espionage, or serial killers, you eventually notice something interesting: investigators from completely different fields often describe criminals in surprisingly similar ways. A cyber threat analyst might say, “The attacker reused…
