Monthly Archives: July 2021

So Dr. Kupfer along with Sonia Alas and Tiffany Hwang, then undergraduate students at U.C.L.A., pored through YouTube. They watched and debated for hours in order to select the most rank and vile footage possible. Many options were too weak, such as footage of mildly moldy food, Dr. Kupfer said. We wanted feces, we wanted some sort of infection, he clarified.

Dr. Kupfers dream came true. The final ectoparasite clips included a kitten riddled with fleas, a nightmarish bed bug infestation and a beauty shot of a mosquito sucking blood. The final pathogen clips included meat pulsing with maggots, an infected arm lesion oozing pus Dr. Fessler called it the pus volcano and a clump of earwax as dark as an asteroid.

The meat was Dr. Kupfers own creation; unable to find an adequately disgusting video of rotten food, he left a slab of meat in his garden for two weeks and returned when it seemed maximally disgusting, he said.

The video that the researchers found most disgusting titled Dirty festival toilets in the papers supplementary information has since been removed from YouTube. This, perhaps, is for the best. I tried to watch every video used in the experiment. I did not vomit, but I did experience heart palpitations and had to sit in my bathroom with the lights off for several minutes until I stopped seeing the pus volcano. Missing out on the dirty festival toilets, it seemed, was an act of self-care.

The researchers conducted essentially the same experiment three times, twice in the United States and once in China, surveying in total more than 1,000 people. In all three surveys, participants had distinct reactions to the ectoparasite videos when compared with the pathogen videos. When watching ectoparasites, participants reported more urges to itch and scratch, theoretically protecting the surface of their skin from danger. And when watching pathogens, the participants reported more feelings of nausea and urges to vomit.

The researchers plan to expand this project internationally to see how ectoparasite disgust responses vary in different countries and in different languages. Understanding the nuances of disgust, they say, could inform our understanding of disorders such as delusional parasitosis, the mistaken belief that parasites have invaded the body.

Bunmi O. Olatunji, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University who was not involved in the research, said that he considered the new papers results too preliminary to make inferences about clinical conditions. But it does offer interesting possibilities for thinking about the mechanism by which disgust may contribute to the development and maintenance of skin-picking disorder.

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Ever Feel Your Skin Crawling? Maybe You Can Thank Evolution. - The New York Times

Enlarge / It sure looks like a crab, but it isn't. Why are crab-like forms so common?

Many organisms on planet Earth aren't crabs. Dogs, for instancedefinitely not crabs. Science also suggests that humans are not, in fact, crabs. But a surprising number of creatures either are crabs or look a lot like them. For example, a hermit crab has a distinctly crab-like appearance but is not technically a real crab. Hermit crabs are not alone; over the history of life on Earth, there have been five separate cases in which decapod crustaceans have evolved this way, a process common enough that it has picked up a formal term: carcinization.

Around a year ago, this evolutionary process captured the imagination of the Internet. Headlines like Why everything eventually becomes a crab and Why Does Evolution Keep Turning Everything Into Crabs popped up. PBS even made a video.

"Everything" is clear hyperbolethe overwhelming majority of things on Earth are not crabs and seemingly have no plans to become them. But if there are benefits to having a crab-like shape on Earth, should we view that as a general rule of life? Could it hold true on other planets? If the process of carcinization operates here, it's not unreasonable to expect that it might happen elsewhere.

Because we take these things far too seriously, Ars spoke to experts on crabs, evolution, and alien life to find out. The answer: it's highly speculative, given that we haven't found lifecrab-like or otherwiseanywhere else, but it's not wholly impossible.

The reasons creatures evolved crabby features are still unknown, though there are numerous hypotheses. According to Jo Wolfe, a researcher at Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, carcinization could be a mixture of genes and the environment. However, Wolfewho penned a paper on the topic last Marchalso noted that there are still no definitive answers.

There is no clear-cut reason why being a crab is better than not being a crab, she told Ars.

Yet crab-like forms are common enough that a number of the things we call crabs aren't all that closely related to crabs. For instance, a hermit crab is a decapod crustacean and part of a group called Anomura. Though they evolved to have crab-like features, they are not true crabs, which are in the infraorder Brachyura.

Wolfe said that the similar body plans may evolve because the body shape of a crab could have some advantages. Crab bodies tend to be compact and quite flat, with their abdomens folded up below. This could make them smaller targets for predators and could allow the crabs the ability to run and hide in smaller crevasses.

Claws might be a boon as well, Wolfe said. (Even though, again, having claws doesn't make a species a crablobsters have huge claws but aren't crabs.) But defending that argument is made harder by the fact that claws have multiple functions. Some crabs don't even use their claws for predation; a male fiddler crab, for instance, uses his one massive claw for sexual display.

Wolfe also suggested that there are probably genetic limits to carcinization. The genetic makeup of a species that evolved a crab-like body plan would need to have the right building blocks for the process. So, for example, both shrimp and crabs have a genetic toolkit that lets them produce many limbs and exoskeletons, while humans do notmeaning, most likely, there are no human-relative crabs on the horizon.

Right now, there's no evidence that there is any life, much less crab life, on other planets. Even if we found aliens that looked like crabs, they obviously wouldn't be crabs as we've defined them. With the right environment, however, crab-like aliens could hypothetically evolve elsewhere. Wolfe noted that any creatures on these theoretical planets would still need to have the right genetic building blocks to be capable of evolving into crab-like forms. Anda converse is also true: planets different from Earth are less likely to have crabs.

For example, a planet like Naboo in Star Warswhich has land, bodies of water, rock, etc.could be home to crabs, Wolfe said. On Earth, there are terrestrial crabs, which evolved from their marine kin. There are also terrestrial false crabs, such as the terrifying coconut crab. But largely, it seems that water or some kind of liquid on a planet would increase the odds of crabs being there.

If the form of a crab works because it makes it easier to scurry away into rocks and such, then some kind of rocky geography could also help a planet's chances of carcinization. Going back to the Star Wars analogy, planets like the desert world Tatooine or the gas giant Bespin (home of Cloud City) probably wouldn't have what it takes.

Crab-like creatures could also fill specific niches in planets with Earth-like environments, according to Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge and the author of 2020's The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy. Some crab species hang out at the bottom of the ocean and either eat the waste that flows down from higher in the water column or eat the other species that use the waste for nutrients.

Assuming another planet has aquatic life that dies and sinks to the bottom, that niche could also exist there. You could see the sort of evolutionary game playing out very similarly to what presumably happened on Earth, he told Ars.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the niche would be filled by crab-like critters, however. There are some benefits that crabs do have, like claws, multiple legs to scuttle around on, and segmented bodies, Kershenbaum said. But he said that our guesses about the purposes of evolutionary traits aren't always accurate. Further, he noted that in many cases, species simply inherit traits from previous generations, even after those traits no longer contribute to survival.

It seems likely that if there are space crabs, they'd probably come about on planets that have environments similar to Earth's. For her part, Wolfe doesn't necessarily expect that the emergence of life would need to be restricted to Earth-like planets. There could be all kinds of strange forms that evolve to live in alien environments. I think that you could [have crab-like creatures on other planets]. I also think you could get things that don't look like anything on Earth at all, she said.

Kershenbaum doesn't think that life in the stars needs to look exactly like life on Earth. Rather, weird and wacky alien life is just more likely to be rare by comparison. For example, there are plenty of rocky planets out there that probably have water on them, which could be a necessary precursor to life. But it's possible that life could exist in settings that are distinctly different from Earthlike spores living in the acidic atmosphere of Venus.

It seems likely that Earth-like planets are going to be relatively well-stocked with life compared to weird and wonderful planets, he said. More reasonable life is more likely to be common.

Charles Marshall, director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, said, however, that it's a fairly narrow group of species that have evolved to become crabby on Earth. Moreover, these species are already pretty similar to crabs. You've already got to be so close to being a crab before you evolve into a crab, it's kind of a moot point, he told Ars. Life is produced in an enormous amount of morphologies, and crabbiness is just one of them.

The presence of crabby creatures on a planet could suggest the planet has the potential to develop into something interesting, Marshall added. He said that if he were to send a probe into space to look for life, he'd expect to see many worm-shaped thingsthey're quite common on Earth and have been around for more than 500 million years. For something to carcinize, there needs to be a vibrant ecology surrounding it. There would need to be predators for the organism to protect itself or hide from, plus a good variety of food. Worm-like forms probably don't need all of that.

Finding a crab might be indicative of a rich enough biosphere and a rich enough genomic potential that you may yet expect to evolve something like humans, he said. Therefore, searching for something like a crab might be a good idea. If [a planet hasn't] evolved something crab-like, you know you've found a world that's still relatively simple.

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On Earth, things evolve into crabscould the same be true in space? - Ars Technica

Building your own gaming PC is a labor of love. Its not something that needs to be easier, exactly. But from the moment I set a screwdriver to Intels new NUC 11 Extreme, aka Beast Canyon, I couldnt help marveling at how brilliant a eight-liter gaming machine can be.

Beast Canyon is Intels fourth attempt to design a more compact gaming PC than most gamers could dream of building on their own, and paradoxically, its Intels biggest chassis yet. Like last years Ghost Canyon, its attempting to change the way mini-PCs are built with its Compute Element cartridges, which contains a miniaturized motherboard, CPU, memory, storage, and ports you can swap all at once. That way, you can theoretically upgrade your entire system just like youd upgrade a graphics card, right down to plugging it into a PCI-Express slot. (As Ill explain, the truth may be a little more complicated.)

Where Ghost was a 5-liter rounded rectangular prism that barely fit an 8-inch-long graphics card, the 8-liter Beast lives up to its name with room for 12 inches of GPU power and an included 650-watt 80+ Gold power supply. It was enough to let me easily fit and sufficiently power one of the most powerful GPUs on the market, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, and it instantly takes this boxs gaming cred far beyond Intels previous attempts.

That extra room and power is important, because the upgrade options for a smaller 5-liter box like the Ghost havent been looking that hot. While some of Nvidia and AMDs most powerful cards in prior years have shrunken down to fit tiny cases, the latest batch of RTX 3000 and AMD 6000 series GPUs have gone the opposite direction, with most OEMs opting for oversized cards even compared to Nvidias own Founders Editions. Last I checked, the most powerful card that will fit the Ghost is EVGAs RTX 3060 Ti, but the Beast can hold practically every dual-slot graphics card up to a 350W TDP, which just so happens to be where the RTX 3080 Ti tops out anyways.

That might make this 8-liter box one of the smallest competent 4K gaming PCs you can buy in benchmarks with a pre-production sample of the Core i9-11900KB, I saw the Beast post numbers within a stones throw of those my colleague Tom Warren saw when he reviewed the 3080 Ti with his full-size desktop. I cant call todays article a full review without lots of testing on a full production board, but based on the numbers Im seeing in demanding games like Watch Dogs: Legion (which fell just short), most other titles should average over 60 frames per second at 4K with maximum settings sans raytracing.

And while you could probably build a more satisfying, less plasticky and skull-laden rig with boutique cases like the 8.2-liter Louqe Ghost S1 and 7.2-liter Dan A4, most prebuilt mini gaming rigs are far larger, like the 12-liter Corsair One. Perhaps more importantly, I doubt any of them are as effortless to work inside. (I love my 12.7-liter Ncase M1, but even its a squeeze sometimes.)

Grid View

Its not just the fact that Intels modular Compute Element cards let you theoretically swap a bunch of components at once. The internal layout also just makes sense. Instead of having to pivot-pivot-pivot your GPU in and out of the system (or physically remove part of the internal frame, like Intels Ghost) you can flip up the entire top of the Beast, triple-fan-array and all, to easily swing a full-size graphics card in and out of the machine. The whole top pivots on a hinge.

The Beast also has perfect-length power cables for its fully modular SFX power supply, special wire channels for its Wi-Fi antennas and fan cables to go just they need to be, and screws with their own retaining clips (though not spring-loaded screws, like the Ghost). Its not the prettiest build, inside or out, but theres loads of utility. Also, you can turn off the LED lighting with a dedicated hardware button on the bottom.

Like previous Intel NUCs, theres above-average connectivity and expandability, too. Ports include eight full-size USB 3.1 plus additional headers inside the case, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, an UHS-II SD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. I just wish one of those USB-C ports was on the front of the case for easier access.

Oh, and theres room for up 64GB of DDR4 memory and four full-length M.2 slots for your stick SSD storage three M.2 2280 slots inside the Compute Module and a rare 110mm long M.2 slot with Intel Optane support on the bottom of the case. Two of them can do PCIe NVMe Gen 4 storage, the other two offer your choice of Gen 3 NVMe or SATA 3. Also, the entire NUC chassis is five PCIe slots wide instead of four, giving you room for an additional single-slot card or the included CPU fan shroud for better ventilation.

Despite all this goodness, Im not sold on Intels Beast, and it comes down to three things: 1) Im a cheapskate who knows I can generally get more for my money if I dont lock myself to a single brand, 2) finding any graphics card is an exercise in frustration right now, much less a dual-slot, and 3) I still dont trust Intel, or anyone, to keep pumping out modules for as long as Id like to upgrade such a computer.

To be fair, Intels doing better than most in that regard. While Alienware broke its upgradable promise entirely with the Area-51m, Intel says the 11th Gen Compute Element will work in last years Ghost Canyon kinda.

The new module will be able to technically plug into the NUC 9 Extreme Kit, but Intel will not be providing interactive support for that usage model, a rep tells me, adding that There were some design decisions necessary that remove certain features such as front panel audio and PCIe Gen4 is also not a certain guarantee. Its also not guaranteeing any support for Cooler Masters NC100 and the Razer Tomahawk, both of which used an NUC Compute Element as their brains.

In case youre wondering, the Compute Element from my Beast Canyon wouldnt even power on in the Ghost Canyon, something Intel proactively warned us about, and says will be fixed in production. It fits fine physically, though.

In a more perfect world, maybe Intel, AMD, and other PC giants would join forces to turn this kind of PC into a new industry standard, a replacement for the 20-year-old Mini-ITX motherboard layout that dominates small-form-factor PCs today. Thats what Id like to see. And maybe a larger, better window to show off my graphics card, instead of mesh with an odd array of square cutouts underneath.

Photography by Sean Hollister

Correction: The screws on the Ghost Canyon case were spring loaded, but the ones on the Beast Canyon are not (save those on the Compute Element itself). They are automatically retained when you remove them, though.

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This is Beast Canyon, the evolution of Intels modular mini gaming PC - The Verge

New research shows genome duplication in the ancestor of modern gymnosperms, a group of seed plants that includes cypresses and pines, might have directly contributed to the origin of the group over 350 million years ago. Credit: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History

Plants are DNA hoarders. Adhering to the maxim of never throwing anything out that might be useful later, they often duplicate their entire genome and hang on to the added genetic baggage. All those extra genes are then free to mutate and produce new physical traits, hastening the tempo of evolution.

A new study shows that such duplication events have been vitally important throughout the evolutionary history of gymnosperms, a diverse group of seed plants that includes pines, cypresses, sequoias, ginkgos, and cycads. Published on July 19, 2021, in Nature Plants, the research indicates that a genome duplication in the ancestor of modern gymnosperms might have directly contributed to the origin of the group over 350 million years ago. Subsequent duplications provided raw material for the evolution of innovative traits that enabled these plants to persist in dramatically changing ecosystems, laying the foundation for a recent resurgence over the last 20 million years.

This event at the start of their evolution created an opportunity for genes to evolve and create totally new functions that potentially helped gymnosperms transition to new habitats and aided in their ecological ascendance, said Gregory Stull, a recent doctoral graduate of the Florida Museum of Natural History and lead author of the study.

Some conifer and cycad species have highly restricted distributions and are at risk of going extinct due to climate change and habitat loss. These conifers, Araucaria goroensis, also known as the monkey puzzle tree, and Dacrydium araucarioides are unique to New Caledonia. Credit: Nicolas Anger

While having more than two sets of chromosomes a phenomenon called polyploidy is rare in animals, in plants it is commonplace. Most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, for example, are polyploids, often involving hybridization between two closely related species. Many plants, including wheat, peanuts, coffee, oats, and strawberries, benefit from having multiple divergent copies of DNA, which can lead to faster growth rates and an increase in size and weight.

Until now, however, its been unclear how polyploidy may have influenced the evolution of gymnosperms. Although they have some of the largest genomes in the plant kingdom, they have low chromosome numbers, which for decades prompted scientists to assume that polyploidy wasnt as prevalent or important in these plants.

Gymnosperm genetics are also complex. Their large genomes make them challenging to study, and much of their DNA consists of repeating sequences that dont code for anything.

Some gymnosperm traits, such as cone structure, color, shape and size, may have arisen as a result of multiple genome duplications. This is a female cone of the species Callitris pancheri. Credit: Nicolas Anger

What makes gymnosperm genomes complex is they seem to have a proclivity for accumulating lots of repetitive elements, said study co-author Douglas Soltis, Florida Museum curator and University of Florida distinguished professor. Things like ginkgos, cycads, pines and other conifers are loaded with all this repetitive stuff that has nothing to do with genome duplication.

However, a recent collaborative effort among plant biologists, including Soltis, to obtain massive numbers of genetic sequences from more than 1,000 plants has opened new doors for scientists attempting to piece together the long history of land plant evolution. Stull, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Kunming Institute of Botany, and his colleagues used a combination of these data and newly generated sequences to give gymnosperms another look.

By comparing the DNA of living gymnosperms, the researchers were able to peer back in time, uncovering evidence for multiple ancient genome duplication events that coincided with the origin of major groups.

Gymnosperms have undergone significant extinctions throughout their long history, making it difficult to decipher the exact nature of their relationships. But the genomes of all living gymnosperms share the signature of an ancient duplication in the distant past, more than 350 million years ago. More than 100 million years later, another duplication gave rise to the pine family, while a third led to the origin of podocarps, a group containing mostly trees and shrubs that today are primarily restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.

In each case, analyses revealed a strong link between duplicated DNA and the evolution of unique traits. While future studies are needed to determine exactly which traits arose due to polyploidy, possible candidates include the strange egglike roots of cycads that harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria and the diverse cone structures found across modern conifers. Podocarp cones, for example, are highly modified and look deceptively like fruit, said Stull: Their cones are very fleshy, have various colors, and are dispersed by different animals.

Stull and his colleagues also wanted to know whether genome duplications influenced the rate at which new gymnosperm species evolved through time. But instead of a clear-cut pattern, they found a complex interplay of extinction and diversification amidst a backdrop of a significantly changing global climates.

Today, there are about 1,000 gymnosperm species, which may not seem like many when compared with the 300,000 or so species of flowering plants. But in their heyday, gymnosperms were much more diverse.

Gymnosperms were still thriving prior to the asteroid extinction event 66 million years ago, best known for the demise of dinosaurs. But the dramatic ecological changes brought about by the impact tipped the scales: After the dinosaurs disappeared, flowering plants quickly began outcompeting gymnosperm lineages, which suffered major bouts of extinction as a result. Some groups were snuffed out entirely, while others barely managed to survive to the present. The once-flourishing ginkgo family, for example, is today represented by a single living species.

But the results from this study indicate that at least some gymnosperm groups made a comeback starting around 20 million years ago, coinciding with Earths transition to a cooler, drier climate.

We see points in history where gymnosperms didnt just continue to decline, but they actually diversified in species numbers as well, which makes for a more dynamic picture of their evolutionary history, said co-author Pamela Soltis, Florida Museum curator and UF distinguished professor.

While some gymnosperms failed to cope with the dual specter of climate change and competition, others had an advantage in certain habitats due to the very traits that caused them to lose out in their ancient rivalry with flowering plants. Groups such as pines, spruces, firs and junipers got fresh starts.

In some respects, gymnosperms maybe arent that flexible, Pamela Soltis said. They kind of have to wait around until climate is more favorable in order for them to diversify.

In some environments, gymnosperms adapted to live at the extremes. In pine forests of southeastern North America, longleaf pines are adapted to frequent fires that incinerate their competition, and conifers dominate the boreal forests of the far north. But take away the fire or the cold, and flowering plants quickly start to encroach.

While gymnosperms are still in the process of diversifying, theyve been interrupted by human-made changes to the environment. Currently, more than 40% of gymnosperms are threatened by extinction due to the cumulative pressures of climate change and habitat loss. Future studies clarifying how their underlying genetics enabled them to persist to the present may give scientists a better framework for ensuring they survive well into the future.

Even though some conifer and cycad groups have diversified considerably over the past 20 million years, many species have highly restricted distributions and are at risk of extinction, Stull said. Efforts to reduce habitat loss are likely essential for conserving the many species currently threatened by extinction.

The researchers published their findings in Nature Plants.

Reference: Gene duplications and phylogenomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms by Gregory W. Stull, Xiao-Jian Qu, Caroline Parins-Fukuchi, Ying-Ying Yang, Jun-Bo Yang, Zhi-Yun Yang, Yi Hu, Hong Ma, Pamela S. Soltis, Douglas E. Soltis, De-Zhu Li, Stephen A. Smith and Ting-Shuang Yi, 19 July 2021, Nature Plants.DOI: 10.1038/s41477-021-00964-4

Other co-authors of the study are Xiao-Jian Qu of Shandong Normal University; Caroline Parins-Fukuchi of the University of Chicago; Ying-Ying Yang, Jun-Bo Yang, Zhi-Yun Yang, De-Zhu Li and Ting-Shuang Yi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Yi Hu and Hong Ma of Pennsylvania State University; and Stephen Smith of the University of Michigan.

Funding for the research was provided by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Yunling International High-end Experts Program of Yunnan Province and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province. Stull also received support from the CAS Presidents International Fellowship Initiative and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundations International Postdoctoral Exchange Program.

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DNA Hoarders: Genetic Duplication Linked to the Origin and Evolution of Pine Trees and Their Relatives - SciTechDaily

Video produced by Steve Nathans-Kelly

Daniel Rasmus, principal analyst, Serious Insights,traced the curve of evolution and the move toward parity among major collaboration platforms during his presentation at KMWorld Connect 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed organizations to adopt a variety of collaboration features as workers moved from the office to remote enviornments, Rasmus explained.

"This pandemic has forced them to rethink everything and to re-invest," Rasmus said.

Platforms are being adopted that allow organizations to understand the health of the organization, scalability, directing employees on where to go and how to find the information they need, he explained.

Several platforms for collaboration include Cisco's Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Google's move to adopt a workspace-like platform that brings together all of its tools.

"We're seeing companies with platforms that have kind of languishedgetting huge influxes of capital to help them bring more features to the platforms," Rasmus said.

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The Rapid Evolution of Collaboration Features - KMWorld Magazine

A report from Barracuda Networks also identifies attack risks associated with various roles throughout a company ranging from CEOs and IT departments to employees in sales.

Image: GettyIMages/South_agency

In recent months, a string of high-profile cyberattacks on critical aspects of the U.S. infrastructure has brought conversations surrounding cybersecurity front and center for companies around the globe. On Wednesday, Barracuda Networks published a report entitled "Spear Phishing: Top Threats and Trends'' highlighting the latest security trends and tactics cybercriminals are deploying.

"Whether it's taking advantage of the buzz around cryptocurrency, stealing credentials to start a ransomware attack, or tailoring attacks to less suspicious targets in low profile roles, cybercriminals are constantly adapting their tactics and making their attacks more sophisticated," per the report.

SEE:Security incident response policy(TechRepublic Premium)

Overall, the average organization will face more than 700 social engineering cyberattacks annually, and 10% of the targeted attacks are business email compromises (BEC), according to the report. Among social engineering attacks analyzed by Barracuda researchers, phishing represented 49%, followed by scamming (39%), BEC (10%) and extortion (2%).

A portion of the report identifies attack risks associated with various roles throughout a company ranging from CEOs and IT departments to employees in sales. On average, IT professionals receive 40 targeted phishing attacks annually and this number jumps to 57 for CEOs. Overall, 19% of BEC attacks focus on workers in sales positions and 77% target professionals "outside of finance and executive roles," per the report.

"Due to the nature of their role, sales reps are used to getting external messages from senders they haven't communicated with before. At the same time, they are all connected with payments and with other departments including finance. For hackers, these individuals could be a perfect entry point to get into an organization and launch other attacks," the report said.

Overall the brands most often used in the impersonation attacks include Microsoft, WeTransfer, and DHL, with the report noting that the top three have "stayed consistent since 2019." Over the last year, Microsoft was impersonated in nearly half (43%) of phishing attacks, down from 56% in 2019, according to Barracuda data. The switch to remote work as well as increased e-commerce and deliveries during the coronavirus pandemic could play a role in these preferred brand impersonation tactics.

"With 79% of organizations using Office 365 and many more looking at migrating in the immediate future, it's not surprising that Microsoft brands remain a top target for cybercriminals," the report said.

In order, WeTransfer (18%), DHL (8%), Google (8%), eFax (7%) and DocuSign (5%) round out Barracuda's top six impersonated brands.

"Around 12% of attacks used either DHL or USPS branding to provide fake updates on shipments and deliveries. Hackers have been capitalizing on the fact that so many people have been stuck at home over the past year and getting more deliveries," the report said.

SEE:How to manage passwords: Best practices and security tips (free PDF)(TechRepublic)

Over the last year, cryptocurrencies have made headlines for myriad reasons ranging from carbon footprint concerns to pricing volatility. Interestingly, cybercriminals appear to be riding the wave of crypto fanfare and using digital currencies as bait in recent attacks. From October 2020 to April, "cryptocurrency-related impersonation attacks" spiked 192%, according to the Barracuda report.

"Hackers impersonated digital wallets and other cryptocurrency-related apps with fraudulent security alerts to steal log-in credentials. In the past, attackers impersonated financial institutions targeting your banking credentials. Today they are using the same tactics to steal valuable bitcoins," the report said.

From May 2020 through June 2021, the report said the Barracuda researcher team looked at "more than 12 million spear phishing and social engineering attacks impacting more than 3 million mailboxes" across 17,000 organizations.

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The evolution of spear phishing and who criminals are targeting - TechRepublic