...Phishing Jatarra Rodman Professor Romero CIS 324 November 15, 2013 Is it Legitimate? Today, the Internet plays a very important part in the lives of many people. Users are now able to bank online, shop online, apply for jobs online, and perform a number of other tasks that users decades ago were not able to do. Even though the Internet provides users with many conveniences, unfortunately, the Internet is also used to commit many crimes. Phishing is a very common method that thieves use to “steal personal information through spamming and other deceptive means” (“History”, n.d.). The first recorded phishing scam occurred with AOL users in the late 1990s, and was very successful, simply because users did not know any better. Once users became aware of such scams, security meaures were increased, but that did not stop thieves from becoming more creative. Today, the most common phishing scams consist of “an e-mail message [that] tells the victim to click on a link to what purport to be the Web site of a well-known bank or online company” (Baase, 2008). It has become increasingly important for Internet users to be alert and aware of the type of scams that are designed to steal information and potentially identities. Internet users that fall into phishing traps quickly become victims of identity theft and credit card fraud. On average, these scams cost individuals about $1200 (SonicWALL, 2012). To avoid these scams, Internet users should be extra careful when opening emails...
Words: 1415 - Pages: 6
...urweqpoiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiPhishing scams are usually fake email messages coming from what seems to look like a legit business. The messages mostly redirect you to a fake website which gets you to enter your private and personal information. These scammers then commit identity theft with all the information they can gather. The term phishing initially came from using email to fish for passwords and personal information from a sea of internet users. In the early days, phishing was stealing password or accounts online, now phishing has extended to stealing personal and financial data. In the 90’s phishing used emails, fooling internet users to reply giving there password and credit card information. Now phishing has grown to phony websites, or installation of Trojan horses by key loggers. Types of Phishing Methods Fake Website A URL similar to a legit site is purchased and then designed to look like the legit website. The hacker then sends out messages to victims, which fools them to click a link, which redirects them to the fake website. The victim them logs on, which sends the information to the hacker. Fake pop up Addition to the fake websites is the fake pop up attacks. With this attack a link is sent, but rather than sending a fake website link, the link sent is the legit site. As soon as the website loads, a pop up comes which requires the user to enter all there info to login. The info is then sent to the hacker. Fake website with...
Words: 1004 - Pages: 5
...Scammers use a technique known as phishing, an attempt to get the victim to divulge financial information and can be avoided by not giving out financial information over the phone and using virus protection. In a phishing scam, the thief poses as an employee of a business asking for sensitive information. This can take place in two different forms, Vishing, and Smishing. Vishing uses voice communication to lure potential victims into giving away sensitive information like usernames and passwords or financial information. Such vishing scams have been carried out by scammers impersonating the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS mentions these scams in a public notice where the scammers use fake names, IRS badge numbers and even alter their caller...
Words: 457 - Pages: 2
...And I Went Phishing…. By Rebecca Key 01/31/14 SCI 305: Technology and Society Professor: Pat Gonzalez My experience with the “phishing” quiz surprised me I scored 90%. I only missed one and to be honest I debated it about it. This was the only one that I really had an issue with. I thought it was phishing but then when it wasn’t asking for any personal information I second guessed myself. I missed the one from Bank of America about the ALERTS, to the account. I said it was legitimate. The give aways were that is was improperly formatted sender, it was addressed dear customer and not the customer’s name, and color coding in not used in formal communication. The main things that helped me identify whether it was legitimate or not was first, the spelling and grammar, several had very poor spelling and incorrect grammar. I am a bit OCD in this area so that is the first thing that jumped out. The second thing that helped identify the “phishing” was the request for personal information. There was one supposedly from the IRS wanting my social security number and my credit card number to have my tax return put on my card. According to Microsoft Office’s official page, “Requests for personal information in an e-mail message is the most common “phishing” detector. Most legitimate businesses have a policy that they do not ask you for your personal information through e-mail. Be very suspicious of a message that asks for personal information even if it might...
Words: 675 - Pages: 3
...Content 1. Hacking & Phishing 2. What is hacking? 3. How hackers discover your PC’s address? 4. How does a firewall work? 5. What is Phishing? 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Types of Phishing 5.2.1 Clone Phishing 5.2.2 Spear Phishing 5.2.3 Phone Phishing 1. Hacking & Phishing No, we're not talking about baiting the hook while you have a bad cold. Hacking and Phishing are two very different types of computer security threats. Hacking is an extremely y high tech attack which requires you to take certain precautions to protect your computer and al l of the data which is stored in it. Phishing, on the other hand, i s decidedly low tech and just requires a dose of common sense to ward off the dangers. 2. What is hacking? Because the Internet is simply a network of computers that are al l tied together, every one of them (including yours) has the capability to "talk" to any other one. That means that a determined criminal can gain unauthorized zed entry to your PC once he knows your computer's "address". These criminal s are called "hackers". 3. How hackers discover your PC’s address? Your computer l eaves its address al l over the Internet whenever it visits a web site. The addresses can be found in the log files which are automatically generated by every web server among other pl aces. Some hackers use what is known as "port scanning" software which simply goes out on the Internet and el electronically knocks" on the door of every connected computer it can find to see if any will...
Words: 1233 - Pages: 5
...CMGT/400 2-25, 2013 Terry Green Common Information Security Threats Paper The growing number of security treats an organization faces from day to day grows substantially as each day passes. Even the failed attempts to access secure data bear fruit of some kind in the form of another vulnerability being discovered or a different tactic is used that the company wasn’t prepared for. One organization that can’t afford not to be prepared is the Chase Bank organization. This financial institution is very accustomed to fending off skilled cyber thieves. It gets hit every day by thousands if not tens of thousands of attacks on their infrastructure and networks I will discuss three major threats that Chase faces DDoS attacks, Mobile Banking and Phishing. Transferring funds out of users' accounts is a major security treat they face. This can be achieved many ways which makes it an active job for the security admins of banks. Online banking has opened the banks to a wide variety of vulnerabilies that much be patched or mitigated to the lowest degree possible. Being the victim of a DDoS attack is always a possibility for Chase as they contact a large amount of online tractions and overseas money handling. Attackers can employee DDoS attacks, or distributed denial of service attacks, named for denial of customer service by aiming large capacities of network traffic to a website until it forced to or collapse. To help combat the treat of a DDoS attack Chase could increase the networks bandwidth...
Words: 1188 - Pages: 5
...Analysis of PHISHING By Prasath Manimaran ID: 20038303 Table of Contents Chapter One – Introduction 1. Research Questions and Objectives……………….…………………………………………….5 Chapter Two – Literature Review & Definition of Phishing 2.1. Literature Review…………………………………………………………………………………………..8 2.1.2. Definitions of Phishing……………………………………………………………………..8 2.1.3. Outcomes of this Study…………………………………………………………………….16 2.2. Research Details 2.2.1. Scope of the Research……………………………………………………………………….17 2.2.2. Research Methodology……………………………………………………………………..17 2.2.3Inductive versus Deductive Study……..………………………………………………..20 2.2.4. Qualitative versus Quantative……………………………………………………..20 Chapter Three – Phishing in a Banking Context 3.1. Confidence in Internet Banking……………………………………………………………………22 3.1.1. Security Requirements………………………………………………………………………23 3.2. Threat Models……………………………………………………………………………………………….25 3.2.1. The Internet Threat Model……………………………………………………..25 3.2.2. Thompson Threat Model……………………………………………………….26 3.2.3. Viral Threaet Model………………………………………………………………26 3.3. The Phishing Threat Model…………………………………………………………………………..26 3.3.1. Identification of Internet Banking Components………………………………..27 3.3.2. Identification of Phishing Threats………………………………………………29 Chapter 4 – Analysis of Current Phishing Techniques 4.1. Modus Operandi………………………………………………………………………………………….…36 4.2. Roles of Adversary in Phishing………………………………………………………………………...
Words: 15039 - Pages: 61
...Security Issues and Solutions in Ecommerce Applications The rise in popularity of conducting business online via ecommerce sites has not gone unnoticed by hackers and other cyber-criminals. A rise in the number of transactions and an increase in businesses that have an online presence have provided hackers with increased opportunities to exploit security vulnerabilities in ecommerce applications for personal profit, at the expense of legitimate businesses and users. A successful attack can result in downtime, the theft of user financial and personal information, loss of revenue, and loss of customers. This paper will offer an overview of some common types of security vulnerabilities and attacks on ecommerce platforms as well as some common tactics to prevent such attacks. Additional suggestions for maximizing information security on an application level as well as within an origination will be made with the goal emphasizing the prevention of attacks. There are numerous tactics that exploiters use to gain access to user personal and financial information on ecommerce sites. One common attack is SQL injection, which is a tactic where a hacker inserts SQL query data into user input fields on a web site, with the goal of that query being executed by the database. With the strategic placement of apostrophes, dashes and semi-colons, the hacker can execute queries that bring a web site down, provide access to customer financial and other personal information, and even manipulate...
Words: 2158 - Pages: 9
...I learned how hacking have become a huge issue with technology in today’s society. I learn three ways to capture someone username and password. You can do that by eavesdropping, dumpster diving, and social engineering. People are also hacking into users’ networks. Sidejacking is a way where hijackers capture a user cookie. I learned in details more about malware. Malware consists of virus, worm, and spyware. Viruses are a code that has been added or embedded into another application. Worm is a self-contaminated program which can spread throughout the network. Spyware is a program that communicates over the internet without user’s consent. I learned the difference between phishing and spear-phishing. Phishing is when a large scale of information is capture from various computer users. Spear-phishing is when they go through email address to select a particular group of recipients to target. I learned that you can still make money even when you are a cyber-criminal. However, it is kind of a good choice to make to give to companies that are looking for a protection shield. I had already learned about online voting which could be a quicker way to save time on manual counting. In conclusion, I have learned a variety of information that could carry me forward with my education of learning something new every time. Knowing that you can become a hacker and not charge for a crime is a serious matter. However, they must be known for an ethical hacker to be able to be...
Words: 273 - Pages: 2
...installing a program that can give the hacker unlimited access to the database anytime which could compromise any important data. Email Phishing Attacks Phishing is a form of fraud in which the attacker tries to learn information such as login credentials or account information by masquerading as a reputable entity or person in email, IM or other communication channels Summary The three areas that Team D considers the most threatening is the website network service, database, and email. The security in these areas must be up to date as hackers are constantly trying to obtain access to the company’s information. The new customer rewards program allows for information of customers to be at risk if not properly secured. The data that will be saved in the database is the customer’s name, address, DOB, phone number, email address, and account number. Therefore, the importance of keeping this information secured is high priority. According to US CERT (2013),” [DoS attack is] …targeting your computer and its network connection, or the computers and network of the sites you are trying to use, an attacker may be able to prevent you from accessing email, websites, online accounts (banking, etc.), or other services that rely on the affected computer” (para. 1). This in turn will not allow the customer to be able to access their account. Phishing and back-door attacks are also serious threats to the system. In the next 5 weeks’, Team D will...
Words: 348 - Pages: 2
...------------------------------------------------- Techniques and terms[edit] All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases.[3] These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create attack techniques, some of which are listed here: Pretexting[edit] Pretexting (adj. pretextual), also known in the UK as blagging or bohoing, is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to engage a targeted victim in a manner that increases the chance the victim will divulge information or perform actions that would be unlikely in ordinary circumstances.[4] An elaborate lie, it most often involves some prior research or setup and the use of this information for impersonation (e.g., date of birth, Social Security number, last bill amount) to establish legitimacy in the mind of the target.[5] This technique can be used to fool a business into disclosing customer information as well as by private investigators to obtain telephone records, utility records, banking records and other information directly from company service representatives. The information can then be used to establish even greater legitimacy under tougher questioning with a manager, e.g., to make account changes, get specific balances, etc. Pretexting can also be used to impersonate co-workers, police, bank, tax authorities, clergy, insurance investigators — or any other individual...
Words: 9621 - Pages: 39
...Small Business Paper 1 Over the last few years major retail companies have been hacked. Target, Sony and even Walmart, you may think that only big name companies get hacked. But to be honest small business are the major target of hackers because they do not have the resource or knowledge as the top dogs. According to Symantec Threat Report 82% of stolen information could have been protected if business had and follow a security plan. So what are some threats that small business face today, for example let’s take a look at a kiosk at a shopping center. Kiosk’s is an 8 billion dollar industry in the United States, the average mall has 20 kiosk and they sell apparel, cell phone and accessories all the way down to home décor. Why are kiosks at the mall so vulnerable to system threat? Because most of them us an iPad or computer to make their daily transactions. Let’s take a look at some of the threats a kiosk had to deal with. Number one since they use a computer or iPad that’s need to be connected to a network this alone is a huge threat because hackers can easily hack the network and get customers financial information. According to Symantec/Small Business Technology Institute Study 60% of small business have open wireless networks. This leads me to the second threat that a small business can get is a malicious code. Small businesses try to save money so they don’t really think about an anti-spyware program or anti-virus because of this the system is defenseless against a...
Words: 641 - Pages: 3
...emerging threat vector which combines social engineering and technology. Utilizing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) convenience combined with electronic mail phishing techniques, Vishing has the potential to be a highly successful threat vector. Vishing victims face identity theft and/or financial fraud. An increased awareness about these attacks will provide an effective means for overcoming the security issues. INDEX 1. Introduction 1 2. What is Vishing? 1 3. How Vishing works? 2 4. The Problem of Trust 4 5. Vishing Characteristics 5 5.1. Type of data prone to attack 5 5.2. Data usage by the attacker 6 6. Other Attacks 6 6.1. Dumpster diving 6 6.2. Card Owner Validation 7 6.3. Handset Blackmail 7 6.4. Exploit payloads 7 7. Overcoming Vishing 7 8. Conclusion 8 References 9 1. Introduction: Many of today’s widespread threats rely heavily on social engineering techniques, which are used to manipulate people into performing actions or divulging confidential information to leverage and exploit technology weaknesses. Phishing is the most commonly exploited threat currently plaguing the Internet and its users. At one point, phishing referred exclusively to the use of e-mail to deliver messages whose purpose was to persuade recipients to visit a fake website designed to steal...
Words: 2502 - Pages: 11
...For a better understanding of the situation in the network of the company I decided to start the analysis by the vulnerabilities that this one presents. Many of these vulnerabilities are the cause for different types of network attacks. It should be noted that while many of these vulnerabilities may be mitigated or eliminated the possibility of an attack always exists. The first vulnerability is the email server. Although very well controlled for been within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), this is always a vulnerability with which most companies have to deal with. This vulnerability opens the way for phishing attack. One way to mitigate this vulnerability is configuring the email server so that only authorized email may enter. This is difficult because our video game company has a large list of customers and suppliers that are in constant change. The best option is to alert users about the security measures and company policies regarding private and unknown emails. The Web and FTP server can be a not very alarming vulnerability. Because it is located in the DMZ and after the Intrusion Detection System (IDS), is unlikely to be corrupted without being detected. The location of the file servers in the network is totally unprotected against internal attacks. Any successful attack in the LAN would leave the data servers exposed. The establishment of a demilitarized zone with a completely different set of log on names and password than any other machines would give these servers better...
Words: 1141 - Pages: 5
...Once we were able to view all logs and audit data it came to our attention that the data did not appear to be stolen from our network. All transactions performed were done so with the appropriate credentials. Once we determined that the data breach did not occur on our network we worked with the customers to check their personal computers. We discovered that all the information was gathered from the customers with a key-logging virus that collected the usernames, account numbers, passwords, personal identification numbers, URL addresses, and digital certificates used to access the VL Bank online banking site. Further investigation showed that there was not adequate virus protection on these PCs. The key-logging virus originated from a phishing email impersonating VL Bank and asking the customer to load the latest security software to protect from identity theft. The customers reported the fund transfer immediately (within 48 hours) and they are protected under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA). This states that as long as the fraudulent wire transfer is reporting in a timely manner that the customer will not be held responsible for the amount. Depending on the length of time between the fraudulent activity and the reporting of the fraudulent activity the customer could bear a portion of the responsibility. If the fraud is reported within 2 business days the customer could be responsible for up to $50. If reported...
Words: 1403 - Pages: 6
