phishing

For about two and a half hours on Monday, students at Oxford University couldn’t access Google Docs after the University’s Computing Services team decided to take “extreme action” to halt phishing attacks and also to put pressure on Google. Robin Stevens of OxCert explained in a blog post that, in the past, Google has been slow to respond to requests to help the university. The university’s problem is that phishers are frequently using Google Docs to present phishing forms to its users, with a legitimate domain shown to the user and not detectable by firewalls as Google traffic is over SSL....

Symantec: Phishers continue to target Indonesian celebrities with adult scams. Phishing attacks on rock star Ahmad Dhani have already been seen. In July 2012, Symantec observed a phishing site that claimed to have an adult video of Indonesian actress and singer Aura Kasih. The phishing site spoofed a social networking brand and was hosted on a free Web hosting site. The adult scam came in light of a recent scandal surrounding the singer....

Symantec Connect: Customers of popular email service providers have been a common target for phishers for identity theft purposes. Phishers are constantly devising new phishing bait strategies in the hope of stealing user email addresses and passwords. In April 2012, Symantec observed phishing pages that mimicked popular email services in an attempt to dupe users with attractive storage plans. Customers were flooded with fake offers of free additional storage space for services such as email, online photo albums, and documents....

Symantec Connect: Phishers often choose baits with the motive of targeting a large audience. Using popular celebrities as bait is a good example. Phishers understand that choosing celebrities with a large fan base would target the largest audience and supply more duped users. This month phishers are using the same strategy but, instead of targeting a popular celebrity, they associated their phishing site with the popular FC Barcelona football club. FC Barcelona is the world’s second richest football club and has a large fan following....

Symantec Connect: Phishers regularly introduce new types of fake applications with the motive of improving their chance to harvest user credentials. In February 2012, Symantec observed a phishing site recommending a fake application that allegedly removes “Timeline” profile for Facebook users. The phishing site was hosted on a free web hosting site. The phishing site embedded the Facebook Timeline promotion video from YouTube, with the claim “Remove Timeline Now”. According to this phishing site, users will have their “Timeline” removed from their Facebook profile and get back their old profile page—only after they enter their login credentials....

avast: While taxpayers are the regular target of springtime malware schemes, this year the bad guys are aiming for the accountants. A series of imposter emails are threatening recipients with the removal of their professional accreditation if they fail to respond promptly. The tax-phish appear to be from organizations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA), Better Business Bureau(BBB), and Intuit tax services. After clicking on the email, users are redirected through a hacked legitimate site to the final malware distribution center where their computer can download fake antivirus or another malware package selected by the bad guys....

At the RSA Conference 2012, McAfee’s Chief Technology Officer, Stuart McClure, and several of his colleagues, have demonstrated a whole range of different attacks on mobile devices. For example, they demonstrated an attack on an NFC (Near Field Communication)-enabled smartphone: the attacker simply attaches a modified NFC tag to a legitimate surface such as an advertising poster. For their live demo, the researchers used a Red Cross donations appeal such as those seen at bus stops in various cities across Europe....

SophosLabs: It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow and the spammers are out in force to make the most of unwitting shoppers on the international day of love. Looking to buy a present for someone this Valentine’s Day? Ooh look what popped into my inbox, an email inviting me to buy my Valentine an *ahem* “romantic” gift. Valentine’s Day, the 14th February, is the day we celebrate our feelings of affection for our boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives....

Sunbelt: With the U.S. currently in tax season, online criminals have, once again, sought to take advantage of this. Robert Stetson, one of Sunbelt’s malware researchers, spotted a phishing email posing as Intuit Inc., a company that “develops financial and tax preparation software”. They developed Quicken and TurboTax. Below is a screenshot of the said email: Email details are as follows: Subject: Please verify your tax information ASAP. Message body:...

GFI: You’re probably aware that Megaupload has wandered into what can only be described as a bit of a pickle, assuming said pickle is roughly the size of a Vogon Constructor Fleet. Given that lots of people probably want to take a peek at the FBI Anti-Warning currently pasted across the front of Megaupload.com (or maybe even just see if the site is back online), it’s a fair bet that Ye Olde Typo Fairy will be called into action and some of them will end up going to Megaupload(dot)cm....