Security Alert: Increase in Social Engineering Combined with Spear Phishing
We've detailed the seemingly countless varieties of cybersecurity attacks to hit businesses and organizations over the past few years many times in our Fulcrum Group blog, monthly e-newsletters and in our SPOTDFW.com blog (our site specifically geared to technology issues top of mind for executives, business owners and managers).

November's almost two million dollar breach of Crowley ISD's accounting department -- originated from a one-two punch of malicious intent known as "social engineering" (the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes) and "spear phishing" (the fraudulent practice of sending emails ostensibly from a known or trusted sender in order to induce targeted individuals to reveal confidential information).

Even as complex-sounding as this compromise seems, this type of security breach is completely preventable with the execution of of our most important cybersecurity front-line defenses - education and training of staff!  Here is the recent Fort Worth Star Telegram article detailing how this security compromise occurred.