Security Roundup: More People Fall Victim to Modern Slavery, New Phishing Schemes, and Other News

Catch up on all the action happening at the Global Security Exchange (GSX), the security sector’s premier conference, in the GSX Daily. In addition, here’s a rundown of some other security-related news.

Modern Slavery Shoots Up by 10 Million in Five Years

A new report from the United Nations says that the number of people trapped in modern slavery has grown to 50 million people, an increase of 10 million compared to five years ago. Modern slavery includes individuals who are in forced labor environments as well as individuals in forced marriages.

The report noted that the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing military conflict are major contributors to modern slavery. According to the BBC article on the report: “The UN's labour organisation is keen to stress that slavery is not confined to poor countries far away from the Western world—more than half of all forced labour happens in wealthier countries in the upper-middle or high-income bracket.”

Human Trafficking’s Newest Abuse: Forcing Victims Into Cyberscamming

Nonprofit news organization ProPublica released a report on a growing practice: human traffickers luring people from China, Taiwan, Thailand, and other countries to bogus job opportunities in other countries, including Cambodia, Laos, and Mynamar. Once there, the people become modern slaves in a forced labor environment where they must buy their freedom by working to defraud victims in the West through cyberscams.

Phishing Scheme Targeting Mideast Researchers Uses 'Herd Mentality' Approach to Dupe Victims

Those poorly worded phishing schemes with the bad graphics are still around. But beware, phishing attacks are getting much more sophisticated and targeted. According to the Cyberscoop report: “Hackers are using a clever new phishing technique to create email threads with multiple responses to trick potential victims into thinking bogus messages are legitimate. …The tactic is designed to create a stronger impression that the activity is real, the researchers said, by employing a psychological phenomenon known as “social proof.” Sometimes referred to as “herd mentality,” the idea is that people are more likely to engage if they see others doing it, too.”

Daughter Says QAnon Conspiracy Theory Fueled Father’s Deadly Rampage

A man in the suburbs of Detroit killed his wife and injured his daughter before firing on police who responded to the scene. Returning fire, police killed the man. The man’s other daughter said the QAnon conspiracy movement played a major role.

She “was staying at a friend’s home for a birthday and was not home during the shooting, did not immediately respond to an interview request Monday. But in a Reddit forum for people who have lost connection to loved ones because of QAnon, she firmly blamed the conspiracy theory movement for her family’s tragedy. ‘I want the media to call out Q because this is all their fault,’ she wrote. She lamented how her father’s fall down the QAnon ‘rabbit hole’ changed him from a loving, fun and carefree man to someone who ‘would get really pissy over the smallest things’ and warn of imagined dangers posed by modern medicine or 5G towers. ‘It’s like he got possessed by a demon,’ she wrote.”