Posts Tagged ‘Phishing’
by FireHost Evangelist on September 1st, 2009
Overall, phishing attempts are down in the first half of 2009 as reported by IBM’s X-Force Team in the 2009 Mid-Year Trend & Risk Report.
The decrease is fueled by a decline in the number of traditional banks. Researchers speculate that this trend could be fueled by the financial crisis, or perhaps improved security measures when users login to “real” banks online is playing a role. Make no mistake however, hackers aren’t slowing down. They seem instead to be targeting Online Payment institutions instead as reflected in the rise of attacks over the last 18 months.
To further reinforce the movement toward Online Payment institutions, PayPal is mentioned in two of the top five subject lines from this year. (PayPal is included four times if you extend the list to the top ten slots.)
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Tags: Hackers, Phishing, Secure Web Hosting
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by FireHost Evangelist on August 21st, 2009
This year, social networking sites have become popular targets for cyber crime according to a study of hacking episodes by Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID). This is a shift from 2008 when government and law enforcement agencies were the most enticing targets.
Security experts believe social networks like Twitter and Facebook are targeted because of the sheer number of users. Defacement is the most common motivation for ego-driven hackers, and these high traffic, high involvement communities are a great way to disrupt many victims at once.
A study by Webroot sheds light on a few other reasons why social networks make a ripe targets for hackers.
- 36% of social networkers admit they don’t hide personal information
- 33% admit to using the same password for all of their online accounts
- 28% accept “friend requests” from strangers
With such a high percent of social networking users being unaware of the dangers, “hackers lure users into taking actions they shouldn’t by making it appear as if a friend within their social netowrk has sent them a message – only the message is from a hacker who has hijacked the friend’s account,” warns Mike Kronenberg CTO of Webroot’s Consumer Business division.
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Tags: Cross Site Scripting, Phishing, Prevent Hackers, Secure Web Hosting, SQL Injections
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by FireHost Evangelist on July 21st, 2009
There are four million British identities for sale according to a weekend story from the UK’s Times Online. The compromised data contains highly sensitive, personal financial information like credit card details, bank account numbers, and PIN’s, and it’s all available to the highest bidder.
You may be wondering how such a large bounty of confidential information was collected, and what organization is responsible for the massive data breach. The startling answer is that no one is directly responsible for the leak; it appears everyday email users like you divulged their digits to these hackers.
“Most of the personal data has been gathered as a result of phishing. Unsuspecting victims hand over the information by e-mail to people posing as reputable sources such as banks or online stores. Other data has been stolen after criminals infect a person’s personal computer with viruses and then raid it for information,” the story states.
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Tags: cybercrime, Hosted Exchange, Identity Theft, Phishing, Spam Protection
Posted in: Security | No Comments »
by FireHost Evangelist on July 7th, 2009
Have you ever wondered what hackers really stand to gain by stealing your confidential information? This article published by FoxNews.com helps shed some light on the economy of private information.
While the national economy suffers, the one run by identity thieves in the dark corners of the Internet isn’t hurting. In fact, demand and prices for stolen credit cards, Social Security numbers and other private information remain stable. The supply of confidential data is steady too, thanks to the way the recession has inspired new scams targeting people who are worried about work and their finances.
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Tags: Phishing, Secure Web Hosting, Spam Protection
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by FireHost Evangelist on May 26th, 2009
Soon after the Internet became a household word, so did “virus”. People learned that they had to protect their computers and email inbox or risk data loss, identity theft or malicious activity to their home machines. Over the last decade the internet has grown by leaps and bounds, and companies of every size now conduct business online.
While the software world has fought diligently to reduce the number of affective attack on the personal computer at home through anti-virus programs, hackers have turned their attentions to that which is most vital, but often not very well protected – the hosted website. A variety of tactics are being used by hackers against websites without regard to the size or industry of the business or organization. An American-based Internet security agency recently reported that Internet threats rose by two-thirds in April of 2009.
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Tags: DDoS Attacks, Denial of Service Attack, Distributed Denial of Service Attack, Phishing, Redundant Network Infrastructure, Secure Web Hosting
Posted in: Web Hosting | No Comments »
