Tag Archives: email

A New Tax Season, but the Same W-2 Spear Phishing Scam

By David Kitchen and David M. Brown on January 22, 2018 Posted in Phishing

According to the IRS, the IRS saw the number of businesses, public schools, universities, tribal governments and nonprofits victimized by W-2 scams increase to 200 in 2017 from 50 in 2016. Those 200 victims translated into several hundred thousand employees whose sensitive data was stolen. In some cases, the criminals requested both the W-2 information … Continue Reading

Tax Season Is in Full Swing: Beware of the W-2 Spear Phishing Scam

By Patrick H. Haggerty on January 13, 2017 Posted in Phishing

Last year we saw an unprecedented number of companies of all sizes fall victim to a W-2 spear phishing scam. The scam usually began with a “spoofing” email that appeared to have been sent by a company’s CEO or CFO to one or more employees in the human resources or payroll department. The email typically … Continue Reading

OCR Issues Alert Regarding Phishing Email Disguised as Official OCR Audit Communication

By Patrick H. Haggerty on November 29, 2016 Posted in HIPAA/HITECH, Medical Privacy

11/30/2016 Update: Today OCR issued another alert relating to the phishing email campaign and has shared that the phishing email originates from the email address OSOCRAudit@hhs-gov.us and directs individuals to a URL at http://www.hhs-gov.us. This is a subtle difference from the official email address for OCR’s HIPAA audit program, OSOCRAudit@hhs.gov. Covered entities and business associates … Continue Reading

U.S. Companies May Risk Liability Under Canadian Anti-Spam Law

By Ruth E. Hartman on April 28, 2016 Posted in International Privacy Law

U.S. companies may soon risk litigation for failing to comply with the provisions of Canada’s anti-spam law (CASL) in their electronic communications to Canadian consumers. While this anti-spam law has been in force since 2014, its provisions permitting a private right of action become effective on July 1, 2017. Even companies with no operations in … Continue Reading

Reading This Might Just Preserve Your Identity and Reputation

By Gerald J. Ferguson on June 7, 2012 Posted in Identity Theft, Information Security, Online Privacy

Authorship Credit: Dave Taylor, Director, Information Technology, Baker & Hostetler LLP We are seeing a dramatic increase in spam and email phishing schemes once again. These schemes have become very sophisticated in their ability to mimic the multitudes of legitimate on-line transactions that occur every day. Please consider the following when reading and reacting to … Continue Reading