Been caught phishing?

The news this month revealed how crime associated with credit card fraud had declined, but that online fraud had gone in the opposite direction.

The principle cause is that people are giving away their user name and login information, addresses and of course their mothers maiden name.
The clever, but unscrupulous people intent on acquiring your hard earned readies simply log in to your various accounts and either spend your money on products or make transfers to temporary bank accounts.

So, about this phishing....
There are some very clever people out there who would like access to your bank account, Google account, Paypal account and more.
These very clever people can create identical pages of the various banking/Paypal/Google websites which include legitimate weblinks as well as the fraudulent ones.
The difference is the point where you input your details to log in and then, I'm afraid they have you.

Things that might give these fishing (sorry phishing) emails away as fraudulent:

1. Look at the "from" email address carefully - does it come from a genuine bankname.co.uk - lots of them are from a yahoo or Google address.
2. Take on board the fact that no banks are going to ask you for your username and password outright and also that you don't actually have a Citibank account.
3. If you mouse over the web link designated for you to click in the suspect email the destination URL as in www.barclaysbank.co.uk/ is generally different and
if you right click with you mouse and select "view source" from the drop down menu you will be able to see the source code of the email. Scroll down to where the web link url is and you will see that typically it has an extension on it so it might be http://wwww.barclaysbank.co.uk.ffvvvl.co.uk/login.asp which when looking at the URL you determine that the domain name is actually ffvvvl.co.uk
 
Now this may seem straight forward and easy enough to avoid, but here are a few pointers.

The Basics:
Make sure you have anti virus software installed - these programs are a partial defence against malware, but only partial, a serious hacker will get through (you don't really think the pentagon just forgot to update their antivirus do you ?) , but the rewards for the hacker have to be worth the effort so the more difficult you make life for them then the sooner they will turn to less difficult targets.

Change your passwords regularly. Don't think you are the only one who uses the same password for everything. These days many site login areas have your email address as the user login, So all a hacker needs to do is figure out your password and you are vulnerable.

If you receive an email which is suspect, but you are not 100% sure then don't click on the link in the text.
You can always log on to the website separately without using the link found in the email.

Make sure that with all the memory sticks in circulation you know what you are plugging into your pc (scan it first before accessing the files on it if in doubt)

When somebody calls you and asks to go through "security procedures" which involves you disclosing your mothers' maiden name, date of birth and more, do verify their identity or arrange to call them back.

Be careful about the sites you visit.
There are things known as "drive-by" websites. A drive-by" web site downloads a very small piece of code onto your computer.
In itself this piece of code is so small that the various antivirus programs do not recognise it. However, when it is comfortably insitu on your machine or network it then waits for you to log on to the internet again and sends out a message inviting another bit of code to join it which, once again, is innocuous in it's own right, but which adds itself to the first bit of code. Twenty five bits later and  bit by bit you suddenly have  a piece of software on your machine which is invisible to the antivirus software and can be doing all sorts of things.

What sort of things?
Well a very popular thing is something called a key logger. This a program that records the sites you visit and which keys on your keyboard you are using when accessing them. The key logger then despatches the information off to those intent on defrauding you, they login using your username and passwords previously recorded and help themselves to your information and spend your hard gotten gains.

Another thing is to make your machine or server part of network of servers which is then used in concert by the hackers to bring down a specific website by overwhelming it with requests for information. This is called a denial of service attack.

Drive-by websites may be legitimate websites(big corporates' included) that have been hacked or websites specifically set up to download code onto your pc. Some of the antivirus programs such as MacaFee do have features which indicate whether a site is safe or not, however this is only if the website has been inspected.

Antivirus and how it works.
The majority of anti-virus programs work on the basis of identifying that there is a new virus out there i.e. someone has already come a cropper and have reported it. Once the antivirus companies have identified it, they try and figure out how to neutralise it and this takes time, Then the antivirus update (the one you tend to cancel because the update slows up your machine) is released and by this time the virus has been halfway round the world and back again.

So what is the bottom line on this, what can you do without becoming too paranoid.

Well, recognise the risks involved in not taking this seriously and communicate these in the workplace.

Consequences of getting malware

Malware Definition: short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner's informed consent.

1. It impacts on the amount of time you have to devote to getting rid of it.
2. It will in all liklihood halt progress in the workplace which brings productivity down or to a dead stop and impacts on deadlines and everything that goes with it.
3. You could permanently lose all documentation not backed up.
4. Money, it will cost you money.
5. You have to go and check and then change access to every account you have.
 

Hackers are absolutely brilliant at making scams appear as part and parcel of your normal work and leisure expectations and some of the subject lines fool even the very least gullible of us.
Must dash - got to go and change my passwords.