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Introduction:
Revolut is setting a new industry standard by leveraging cutting-edge technology and a culture of humility to combat financial fraud. Their recent launch of an in-app anti-fraud education course, “Déjouez les escrocs” (Outsmart the Scammers), exemplifies a proactive shift from reactive security measures to user-centric prevention. This approach highlights a critical evolution in cybersecurity strategy, where empowering the end-user becomes a primary line of defense.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the technical mechanisms behind modern banking fraud.
- Learn actionable commands and techniques for cybersecurity awareness and system hardening.
- Analyze how Revolut’s model integrates continuous education into its security posture.
You Should Know:
1. Social Engineering Reconnaissance with OSINT
Fraudsters often begin with Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) gathering to profile targets. The following command uses theHarvester, a classic reconnaissance tool, to collect email addresses and subdomains associated with a domain.
`theHarvester -d revolut.com -l 500 -b google`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: This command searches Google for 500 results (
-l 500) related to the domain `revolut.com` (-d revolut.com), attempting to discover email addresses and subdomains that could be used in phishing campaigns. - How to use it: Install `theHarvester` on a Linux system (e.g.,
sudo apt install theharvester). Run the command in your terminal. The output can be used by security teams to understand their public footprint and by penetration testers to simulate attacker reconnaissance. Defensively, monitoring for this activity can signal impending attacks.
2. Analyzing Suspicious Network Traffic
Monitoring for unauthorized data exfiltration is crucial. This Windows Command Prompt and PowerShell sequence helps identify established network connections.
`netstat -an | findstr “ESTABLISHED”`
`Get-NetTCPConnection -State Established | Where-Object {$_.RemoteAddress -notlike “192.168.”}`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: The `netstat` command lists all active network connections, and `findstr` filters for those in an “ESTABLISHED” state. The PowerShell command `Get-NetTCPConnection` provides a more detailed view, and the `Where-Object` filter excludes connections from the local private IP range (192.168.x.x), highlighting potentially suspicious external connections.
- How to use it: Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the first command. For deeper analysis, open PowerShell as Administrator and run the second. Regularly checking this can help identify malware calling home to a command-and-control server.
3. Hardening Web Application Security with HTTP Headers
APIs and web applications can be hardened against common attacks by implementing security headers. The following snippet shows security headers that should be configured on a web server.
` Nginx Configuration Snippet
add_header Strict-Transport-Security “max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains” always;
add_header X-Frame-Options “SAMEORIGIN” always;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options “nosniff” always;
add_header Content-Security-Policy “default-src ‘self’;” always;`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: These headers instruct browsers on security policies. `Strict-Transport-Security` forces HTTPS. `X-Frame-Options` prevents clickjacking. `X-Content-Type-Options` stops MIME-type sniffing. `Content-Security-Policy` restricts resources loaded by the page.
- How to use it: Add these lines to your Nginx server configuration file (typically inside a `server` block) and reload the configuration (
sudo nginx -s reload). Use browser developer tools to verify the headers are present.
4. Simulating Phishing Campaign Awareness
Revolut’s training aims to make users identify phishing attempts. Security professionals can test awareness using a tool like `setoolkit` (Social Engineering Toolkit) to create simulated phishing campaigns.
`setoolkit`
` Select: 1) Social-Engineering Attacks
Then: 2) Website Attack Vectors
Then: 3) Credential Harvester Attack Method
Then: 2) Site Cloner`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: The toolkit guides you through cloning a legitimate website (like a Revolut login page) to create a realistic phishing simulation. It captures credentials entered into the fake site.
- How to use it: Run `setoolkit` on a Linux system like Kali. Follow the menu prompts. You will be asked for the IP address of the attacking machine and the URL of the site to clone. This should only be used internally for authorized security awareness training.
5. Cloud Infrastructure Hardening (AWS S3)
Misconfigured cloud storage is a common source of data leaks. This AWS CLI command checks the access control list (ACL) of an S3 bucket to ensure it’s not publicly readable.
aws s3api get-bucket-acl --bucket my-bucket-name --query 'Grants[?Grantee.URI==http://acs.amazonaws.com/groups/global/AllUsers`]’`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: This command queries the ACL of the specified S3 bucket and filters the results for a grantee that is “AllUsers” (the public). If it returns a policy, the bucket is publicly accessible.
- How to use it: Ensure the AWS CLI is installed and configured with appropriate credentials. Replace `my-bucket-name` with your bucket’s name. A non-public bucket should return an empty list
[]. This is a critical check for any cloud security audit.
6. Detecting Vulnerability Exploits with Log Analysis
Analyzing web server logs can reveal attempted exploits. This Linux command uses `grep` to search for common SQL injection patterns in an Apache access log.
`sudo grep -E “(union.select|%27OR%271%27%3D%271|/etc/passwd)” /var/log/apache2/access.log`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: The `grep` command searches the Apache log file for patterns indicative of SQL injection (
union select,'OR'1'='1) or Local File Inclusion (LFI) attacks attempting to read/etc/passwd. - How to use it: Run the command on your web server. Any matching lines should be investigated immediately. This can be integrated into a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system for real-time alerting.
7. Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Enforcement
For internal systems, enforcing MFA is key. This PowerShell command for Active Directory can be used to check if a user is enabled for specific authentication methods (part of a broader MFA strategy).
`Get-MgUser -UserId [email protected] -Property DisplayName, SignInActivity | Select-Object -ExpandProperty SignInActivity`
Step-by-step guide:
- What it does: This cmdlet from the Microsoft Graph PowerShell module retrieves sign-in activity for a specific user, which can help auditors verify the use of modern authentication.
- How to use it: First, install the Microsoft Graph module (
Install-Module Microsoft.Graph). Connect to Graph withConnect-MgGraph -Scopes User.Read.All. Then, run the command to see the last sign-in time and other details, aiding in compliance checks for MFA policies.
What Undercode Say:
- User Education as a Technical Control: Revolut’s in-app course is not just marketing; it’s a scalable, integrated security control. By translating complex threats like phishing and social engineering into digestible lessons, they are effectively reducing the attack surface at the human layer, which is often the weakest.
- The Business Case for Proactive Security: The internal resistance the author faced elsewhere—”What do WE gain?”—highlights a fundamental flaw in traditional security thinking. Revolut demonstrates that investing in customer security is a long-term competitive advantage that builds immense trust and differentiates the brand in a crowded market. Their approach shows that the most robust cybersecurity stack is incomplete without an educated user base.
Prediction:
The “Revolut model” of deeply integrating continuous, proactive cybersecurity education directly into a digital service will become a baseline expectation within five years. We will see a rise in “Security UX,” where learning modules are context-aware, triggered by user behavior or emerging global threats. This will blur the line between product development and security operations, forcing a cultural shift where security teams are measured not just on incidents prevented, but on user competency scores. Financial institutions that fail to adopt this transparent, educative approach will face higher fraud-related losses and a gradual erosion of customer trust.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Jonathanspedale Revolut – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
