Fraud Management & Cybercrime , Fraud Risk Management , Video

Trends, Tactics and Threat Actors: The Changing Landscape

FBI San Francisco's Hellman Discusses Attack Trends of the Past Year
Scott Hellman, supervisory special agent, FBI San Francisco

A disgruntled employee here or a vulnerable customer there, human beings are considered the weakest link in cybersecurity, perhaps inadvertently causing a majority of data breaches and cyberattacks.

See Also: Strategies to Fight New Fraud and Money Laundering Schemes

With multifactor authentication becoming ubiquitous, hackers are finding it increasingly difficult to use technical skills to penetrate protected systems, leading to an increase in attacks focusing on the human element, said Scott Hellman, supervisory special agent, FBI San Francisco.

"We see an increase in social engineering and an increase in multifactor authentication fatigue attacks and things of that nature. And some of the biggest cases that we're working in San Francisco have that social engineering element as the initial vector into the network," Hellman told the CyberEdBoard's Steve Lenderman.

In this video interview sponsored by CyberEdBoard and recorded at RSA Conference 2023, Hellman discussed:

  • Popular attack trends of the past 18 months;
  • The uptick in fraud as a service;
  • Investigation tactics of the cybersecurity police workforce.

Hellman has been investigating criminal and national security cybercrime for 15 years with the FBI. He leads a team of cybercrime investigators in the San Francisco Bay Area.


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About the Author

Tom Field

Tom Field

Senior Vice President, Editorial, ISMG

Field is responsible for all of ISMG's 28 global media properties and its team of journalists. He also helped to develop and lead ISMG's award-winning summit series that has brought together security practitioners and industry influencers from around the world, as well as ISMG's series of exclusive executive roundtables.




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