ALL NEWS: Phishing The worldwide internet threat an overview

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Phishing The worldwide internet threat an overview

Phishing-The worldwide internet threat, an overview

Phishing-What is it ?-The word Phishing is derived from the word ‘Fish’. The activity is also of the similar nature. As a fisherman drops his fishing line in the sea among the countless fishes, some times he succeeds and other times not. Phishing is a problem faced by Banking institutions worldwide. It is an attempt to fish for your banking details. Phishing could be an e-mail that appears to be from your bank. Please note that Banks will never ask for confidential password, login ID or any other data because they already have these. Most common mistake done even by the highly skilled users and computer experts is that they provide their account ID, Pass words, and other account information. Why don’t they apply a small amount of their mind that their bank already has these details and need not to ask you on emails and this information is provided to him by the bank it self. Phishing is a technique which came in light and was described in detail around 1987, and it’s first recorded use of the term "phishing" was reported in 1995. The term is a variant of fishing probably influenced by fishing and alludes to "baits" used in hopes that the potential victim will "bite" by clicking a malicious link or opening a malicious attachment, in which case their financial information and passwords may then be stolen..

Common Phishing Techniques-

Spear Phishing

The Phishing attempts made directed at some specific individuals or companies or a banking institution is termed as spear phishing. In this type of phishing the attackers first gather detailed information about their targeted victims to increase their probability of success.

Clone Phishing

In this type of phishing attack a clone of, a previously delivered, legitimate email (May contain an attachment or link) its content and recipient address is taken and used to create an almost identical cloned email. The attachment or Link within the email is replaced with a malicious version and then sent from an email address spoofed to appear to come from the original sender. It may also claim to be a re-send of the original or an updated version to the original. This could be used to pivot (indirectly) from a previously infected machine and gain a foothold on another machine, by exploiting the social trust associated with the inferred connection due to both parties receiving the original email.

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Whaling

When phishing attacks have been directed specifically at senior executives and other high profile targets within businesses, is termed as whaling. In this type of phishing attackers will be in huge benefit if successful. In such cases two senior executives are targeted. For example “Thedi Corp.” has business relations with “Kolkata Corp.” and “Thedi Corp.” frequently transfers money to the account No-9999999999 of “Kolkata Corp.” at Kolkata. The attacker has stolen the details of the account of “Kolkata Corp.”. He will send an email to “Thedi Corp.” that we(“Kolkata Corp.”) are establishing a new business office at Mumbai(or may give any other reason) therefore in future make all payment to account no-8888888888 at Mumbai. This account 8888888888 will be of the Phishing person and assuming the email genuine, Now Thedi Corp will start transferring all payments related to Kolkata Corp. to the account no-8888888888 and some times until the fact reveals the victim may have lost a huge amount.

Link manipulation

In Most cases some kind of technical deception designed to make a link in an e-mail appearing to be from the genuine organization, which will lead to the destination desired by the fisher Misspelled URLs or the use of sub domains are the Common tricks used. Let us understand it by the following example - The URL, http://www.thedibank.comp.com/, at first sight it appears that the URL will take you to the comp section of the thedibank website, but actually this URL points to the " thedibank.comp.com " i.e. the phishing website. Now a days every body is in so hurry that he don’t read the complete URL. They have no time to think on the difference between thedibank.com and thedibank.comp.com. They never think and click immediately while they see the name of there bank.

Text instead of a link

Another common trick used is to make the displayed text instead of a link, the text between the tags suggests a reliable destination, but the link actually goes to the phishers site. By the following example let us try to understand. The link, http://www.thedibank.com/current appears to direct the user to the "Current Account"; section of the thedibank but actyally it will take the user to a URL hidden behind the text “current” in other words to the fisher’s site. In such cases the user can detect, where the URL will take him, by hovering his cursor over the link for a couple of seconds the lower left hand corner of most of the browsers users can preview and verify where the link is going to take them, but this can still be set by the phisher.

Software Installation –(The MailFrontier Phishing)

Some times you will receive an email with an attachment. Bank’s logo/monograms and style will appear to be the same as if it has been received from your bank. The email will contain instructions to install the software contained in the attachment for the sake of improvement in speed, security, service or may be some other reason. Never click on such attachments and report the matter immediately to your bank otherwise your balance may be zero within minutes, because the software will immediately send your account details including the password and user ID to the phisher.

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