X-Industry

Tis the season for cybersecurity and IT teams have to send out a company-wide email: “No, our CEO does NOT want you to buy gift cards.”  As much of the workforce signs off for the holidays, hackers are stepping up their game.  We will see an increase in activity as hackers continue to introduce e-commerce scams and holiday-themed phishing attacks.  Hackers love to use these tactics to trick end users into compromising not only their personal data but also their organization data.

Use this time o

During the first nine months of 2021, 40,000 people reported losing over $148 million in gift cards to scammers.  And we are only now entering the Christmas season.   According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these are staggering numbers that have increased each year for the past several years.  Since 2018, gift cards have been the most frequently reported payment method for fraud.  According to the FTC, most gift card scams start with a phone call from someone impersonating a branch of t