• bunee
• September 2, 2023
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Identity Service Provider Okta Raises Alarm Over Social Engineering Attacks

• Okta, an identity services provider, has announced a surge in social engineering attacks targeted at gaining administrative permissions.
• In the past few weeks, several US-based Okta customers have spotted a consistent pattern in these attacks, which majorly involve ‘conning’ IT service desk personnel.
• The attackers’ endgame is to persuade the service desk personnel to reset all passwords, thus acquiring elevated privileges.

Okta Cautions Against Rising Social Engineering Attack Plots

Lean in everybody and listen up, because this is important. Okta, your go-to identity services provider, that ensures us all that ‘who we are is enough,’ is now sounding the alarm bell on social engineering attacks. These aren’t your average bullish software attacks, mind you. Oh no! They are more like sly foxes, targeting unsuspecting IT service desk personnel to obtain elevated privileges. A good reminder in tech and in life: not everything that glitters is gold. Now, who’d have thought that IT guys would be the ones getting conned?

US-Based Okta Customers Witness Identical Attack Patterns

Things are getting deviously crafty in cyberspace folks. Over the past few weeks, numerous Okta customers based in the United States are being targeted by a string of social engineering attacks, and they’ve noticed a pattern. Now, this isn’t your comforting ‘motherboard’s-cookies-every-Sunday’ kind of consistency. This strategy is more along the lines of ‘convince-the-IT-service-desk-personnel-into-giving-the-attacker-the-keys-to-the-cyber-kingdom.’ Now, that’s quite a complex plot, almost like trying to update your privacy settings on your social media—it’s just so unnecessarily complicated!

The Endgame: To Obtain Elevated Admin Privileges

Now, strap yourselves for the ultimate goal of these sly characters—the endgame is to hoodwink the unsuspecting service desk personnel into resetting all passwords. Bad news? This means the attackers get elevated privileges. Good news? It isn’t a real raise, more like an unsolicited promotion, if that makes you feel any better. It makes yours truly remember the time when we thought giving every application ‘admin rights’ was a good idea, until our whole system came crashing down harder than my attempts at Karaoke night!

In summary, our dear friend Okta has noticed a surge in social engineering attacks aiming to swipe admin permissions. As if the everyday responsibilities of IT personnel weren’t enough! So, before we all get lost in the vortex of cyber attacks and complicated brews of password resets, let’s remember that as in life, so in cyberspace: it’s ‘crucial to tread carefully.’ Now who said technology talks couldn’t come with a dose of age-old wisdom?

Original Article: https://thehackernews.com/2023/09/okta-warns-of-social-engineering.html