Phishers Mimic Google Adwords

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Google Adwords account holders are being targeted by criminals out to trick them into handing over credit card information using a clever URL spoof that has gained popularity in recent weeks. On the face of it, the scam follows a traditional attack route involving the sending of spam e-mail to random ...

How Anonymous Are You?

Thursday, April 17th, 2008

You may think that you are anonymous as you browse web sites, but pieces of information about you are always left behind. You can reduce the amount of information revealed about you by visiting legitimate sites, checking privacy policies, and minimizing the amount of personal information you provide. What information is ...

Web Users in Malware Crosshairs

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Online malware attacks are becoming more pervasive, targeted, and refined as the underground threat economy continues to evolve and take on the characteristics of an organized industry. The latest iteration of Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report -- covering its research over the final six months of calendar 2007 and released on ...

Microsoft Details Internet Explorer 8 Security

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

At the RSA Security Conference I caught up with Austin Wilson, Microsoft 's Director of Windows Product Management and learned a few tidbits about security enhancements coming in Internet Explorer 8. IE8 will address three specific areas where security can be a problem: social engineering, traditional browser vulnerabilities, and attacks ...

Before Patch Tuesday, There Were Malware

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Recycling an old social engineering technique and using two different attack methods, a new spam run emerges as a threat to Web users before Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday. And not because it exploits soon-to-be named vulnerabilities. What this spamming operation takes advantage of is the anticipation itself for the release of patches ...

Phishing Revisited

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

As Chris mentioned in a previous post we used social engineering and phishing emails as an attack vector. The scope of the engagement prevented us from collecting any data that could be used to identify the user. The client was not out to make examples of their staff but to ...

Internet Fraud Dupes Men More Often Than Women

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

When it comes to being taken in by Internet fraudsters, men have a knack for losing cash, according to a new report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Data compiled from more than 206,000 complaints received last year by the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) shows that men lost US$1.67 ...

Mail Anyone?

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

When you are doing a Business Impact Analysis or a Risk Assessment, you will often find that email, be it internal or external, is one of the systems that people think they cannot live without. They might even be right. Email systems are being used as communications tool, storage system, ...

Anatomy of a hack attack

Sunday, March 16th, 2008

Monday, 9am Blackjack, a hacker working from an internet cafe in London, is about to launch an attack on a major government agency. His aim is to cause maximum disruption and embarrassment. And, according to security experts, his job is going to be worryingly easy. "Most organisations have dozens of vulnerabilities they ...

The Anatomy of a Vishing Scam

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

A series of well-orchestrated wireless phone-based phishing attacks against several financial institutions last week illustrates how scam artists are growing more adept at fleecing consumers by exploiting security holes in seemingly unrelated Internet technologies. The scams in this case took the form of a type of phishing known as "vishing," wherein ...