Category: Cybercrime

Make sure are calling the right person from now on!

Security researcher HD Moore’s scanned about 3% of addressable Internet space looking for high-end videoconferencing systems–the type of systems present in many corporate boardrooms and meeting spaces.

The scan, which took about two hours using a handful of computers, discovered a quarter of a million systems that understood the H.323 protocol, widely used by Internet protocol (IP) communication systems. Using that list, Moore, the chief security officer for vulnerability-management firm Rapid7, used a module for the popular Metasploit framework to “dial” each server, connect long enough to grab the public handshake packets, and then dropped the connection.

“Any machine that accepted a call was set to autoanswer,” Moore says. “It was fairly easy to figure out who was vulnerable, because if they weren’t vulnerable, then they would not have picked up the call.”

The man pegged by Microsoft as the mastermind behind the Kelihos botnet, says he’s not guilty, according to a report.

“I was very surprised and shocked to read in the press that I was being accused of a grievous crime in connection with the Kelihos botnet.

I am absolutely not guilty, have never been involved in handling botnets or any other similar programs, and what is more have never made any profit from such activity. I want to highlight that I have no connection either to the activity of Kelihos or to the distribution of spam.

Unfortunately, the avalanche of publications in the press, referencing inaccurate and distorted information, has inadvertently inflicted a great deal of psychological damage on the companies for whom I have worked or am working, and also adversely affected their business reputation.”

Source: CNET News 

onlinefraudGood times for online fraudsters says FBI.

According to the FBI the losses for victims of Internet fraud in the US was estimated to 560 Million US dollars last year. This is almost the double amount compared to 2008.

I don’t know if ironic is the right word to use, but one of the most common tricks was to use FBIs name to trick victims to pay money or to give out sensitive information.

Internet Complaint Crime Center received 336,655 complaints about net fraud, an increase of 22%.

NW3C Director Donald Brackman said the report’s findings underscore the threat posed by cyber criminals. “The figures contained in this report indicate that criminals are continuing to take full advantage of the anonymity afforded them by the Internet. They are also developing increasingly sophisticated means of defrauding unsuspecting consumers. Internet crime is evolving in ways we couldn’t have imagined just five years ago.” But Brackman sounded an optimistic tone about the future. “With the public’s continued support, law enforcement will be better able to track down these perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

Sources:
Read the full 2009 Crime report (PDF)

FBI Pressrelease

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Online Security Guide


threatIn a Online Safety Study that was published by Microsoft yesterday show that worms are the biggest security threat on the Internet. The study refers to the worm Conficker that infected over five million computers the first six months 2009.

In the Microsoft study the company also found that countries with high numbers of pirate copying of software also get hit harder by security problems.

“There is a direct connection between pirate copying and the number of infected computers” says Jeff Williams on Microsoft Malware Protection Center.

Pirate copying in China is about four times bigger than in the US.

Until next time :-)

Peter – Your Online Security Guide

hotmailpasswordMicrosoft has confirmed that thousands of hotmail passwords has leaked on the internet.

Microsoft claim that the company hasn’t been hacked, but the information was retrieved by the hackers by phishing. It is rumored that over 10,000 accounts has been hacked. Hotmail has over 400 million registered accounts.

If you own a hotmail account you should head over there urgently and change your login information.

29418861Hello Friend,

This is very important even if you are busy take a few minutes to browse through this article and find out if you are unsecured.  If you are unsecured its time to take action because all signs read DANGER and you definitely don’t want to be a Victim!

If you don’t have time to read through the top 3  software providing total security and peace of mind include;

Bitdefender Total Securite $67.00, Steganos Privacy Suite $67.00, Steganos Internet Anonym $97.00.

You may find them a little pricey but when you get an attack I can bet you will be spending alot more to get the problem sorted or purchase a new Computer! If you have spent so much money buying that top range computer or growing your business make sure you are Secured!
Consequences of  being UnSecured

1. Your Identity Could be Stolen

If you have signed up to lots of sites you are most likely to use one password for all of them so it’s easy to remember. If the hackers get into one account then you are in great danger as they could try to access all your other accounts using the same password.

Identity thieves can do a lot of things with your account and here are a few: Use your identity to access your Bank Accounts , Access important/confidential information from  Social Networking Sites, Delete  your Accounts, For Emails – spamming your contacts, send your contacts emails containing adwares

Things that could leave you open to Attack

- Leaving the login page’s “Remember my password“ checked.

- Forgetting to logout (especially if you’re in a cyber cafe)

- Website Spoofed/Phished – you have normally entered your username and password into a website whose design is adopted to the website you should be in, like Yahoo! These fake websites can even have the same URL as the target website.

- Accessing a computer with Keylogger installed on it

2. Your Computer Could Crash

This is the aftermath of having so many viruses, spyware and adware inside your system. These viruses and spywares are often times than not,  from programs downloaded or from storage gadgets inserted to your computer.

Adwares like spywares install themselves. They typically display advertisements once you go online. And this slows down your computer.

If you have  a lot of important personal and work files  you would be out of your wits knowing that you have lost months and maybe years work!

3. Denial of Service (DoS) Attack

This is the most unfortunate thing that can happen to any organization with operations running through Internet.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attack is the pursuit of making a computer deprived of doing its usual tasks and its services unavailable to its users. Where most of the victims of this attack are those sites such as banks, credit card payment gateways, etc.

Hacking can be considered as a culprit of such consequence. Stay secured with Steganos Internet Anonym.

4. Loss of Business leading to Bankruptcy

Apart from Internet thieves out there, who are masters of working their way into your computer network through whatever means they can think of, having bad data back-up habits can  contribute to the failure of a business. Bitdefender Total Security has a very good online backup facility.

With data as the core of any business, a simple backup could save your business from breaking down.

5. Public humiliation

We’ve all heard of scandals which spreads like fungus. Some celebrities even ordinary people have been a victim of this. With their personal, confidential and most personal photos and videos of them exposed on the Internet without them knowing is a total turn down. If you run a business that could be victim to this we recommend Steganos Privacy Suite.

Okay don’t say we didn’t warn you the ball is in your court.

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Online Security Guide

When times go bad there is an increase in company theft.

A report from KPMG states that due to worsening company bonuses, cutt backs and worthless stock options employees are more likely to do harm to their companies by theft and by destroying systems.

Identity theft is not only done online. In fact the majority is done offline. Only 14% of cases are based online. So although many con artist do this at cyberspace, it can also do damage in the real world. By stealing Id’s, Credit cards and checking accounts they can access into your finances.

GT got her car broken into by thieves. They broke the window of her car and got her purse and some other valuable things. She expected that her credit cards would be used for some unauthorized purchase.

After a few days her bank called trying to verify a large purchase made on her credit card. Not just that, she also got charged for a maternity bill when she wasn’t even pregnant.

“They used my checking account and credit cards before I had a chance to cancel them”, says GT, a PR executive from San Francisco. A few months later she found out that they had also opened a new checking account in her name.

That one incident made her to go in debt and she couldn’t even use the account. This can be frightening to consumers who have credit cards and checking accounts. Someone can just steal your identity.

Now I am more careful and observant, says GT who has just only recently recovered from the financial mess that she encountered.

Majority of the people believe that Identity theft could only do damage when credit cards are used for online purchases. Well they are definitely wrong. A stolen wallet or bag would create a worse scenario.

For the one out of three identity theft victims who knows how their information was taken, more than 75 percent said it involved a physical method such as a stolen wallet, a phone or mail-order sale, stolen mail, or a theft by someone they knew, compared with 14 percent who reported that it involved online access.


What is Vishing

The Wikipedia definition of Vishing:

“Vishing is the criminal practice of using social engineering and Voice over IP (VoIP) to gain access to private personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial reward.

The term is a combination of “voice” and phishing. Vishing exploits the public’s trust in landline telephone services, which have traditionally terminated in physical locations which are known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill-payer.

The victim is often unaware that VoIP allows for caller ID spoofing, inexpensive, complex automated systems and anonymity for the bill-payer. Vishing is typically used to steal credit card numbers or other information used in identity theft schemes from individuals.

Vishing is very hard for legal authorities to monitor or trace. To protect themselves, consumers are advised to be highly suspicious when receiving messages directing them to call and provide credit card or bank numbers.

Rather than provide any information, the consumer is advised to contact their bank or credit card company directly to verify the validity of the message.”

Stay tuned for the second part in this series on what to do to protect yourself against vishing, phishing and similar threats.

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Online Security Guide