Busy Signal Service Targets Cyberheist Victims

Merry day after Christmas. Hope you all had, or are having, a wonderful time with family and friends.
The following article is very interesting and just goes to show you what lengths the cyber crimminals are going to in order to steal your stuff.

To summarize the article up in just a few sentences, Cyber criminals are using a service to flood your cell phone and or land line with so many incoming junk calls that the number is unable to receive legitimate calls.  The service is marketed as a diversionary tactic to assist e-thieves in robbing commercial customers of banks that routinely call customers to verify large financial transfers. So while you are getting flooded with calls your accounts are being drained.

I hope you find this article as interesting as I did. Have a happy rest of the year and I'll be talking to you soon.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/12/busy-signal-service-targets-cyberheist-victims/

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Becareful when you reach for the Clouds.

Hello and welcome to another addition of the Kesar Tech Blog.
Today I would like to talk to you about Cloud storage.
I have tried it and don't really care for it.
Here are some concerns I have with it:

Security of stored data and data in transit may be a concern when storing sensitive data at a cloud storage provider. I other words, is it a secure network.

Your ability to access your data is lower than local storage depending on how much you are  willing to spend for WAN (Wide Area Network) bandwidth

Reliability and availability depends on wide area network availability and on the level of precautions taken by the service provider.

Users with specific records-keeping requirements, such as public agencies that must retain electronic records according to statute, may encounter complications with using cloud computing and storage.

My opinion, is that Cloud storage may be good for business, but I would not recommend it for personal use. If you are looking for personal storage ideas, please refer to my February 17, 2010 post:
http://kesartech.blogspot.com/2010/02/data-back-up.html
I do refer to online storage in this post which is now Cloud storage, but this was purely to give example of all the different types of storage options available.
Below you will find an article that better explains the benefits and downfalls of cloud storage

Have a safe and blessed Christmas season.

http://www.cio.com/article/696527/Moving_to_the_Cloud_in_2012_Look_Out_for_These_Pitfalls

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Beware of Christmas scams

Scammers absolutely love the holiday season. There are likely to be more online scam victims during those busy shopping and travelling December days than at any other time during the year. As such, we compiled a list of Christmas scams you should beware of.


Facebook contest and coupon scams
There are more than 800 million active Facebook users interconnected in a worldwide social network that is at the heart of their online lives and digital identities. And that’s exactly why Facebook has been and can still easily be used by identity thieves to obtain your personal or financial information. So always be careful on Facebook.

Beware of Facebook scams which could take the form of fake contests, irresistible offers or coupons requiring you to hand out your personal information on untrustworthy websites.

And always use common sense.

Scareware, rogueware and fake antiviruses
Scareware, rogueware and fake antiviruses are definitely not new scam tactics, but they should still be treated very seriously. Be careful of web pages or antiviruses you’ve never heard of that are warning you of infections found on your computer. And be extra suspicious if you’re asked to pay to have those infections removed.

Infected screensavers, ringtones and e-cards
People love to download screensavers, ringtones and to send out e-cards during the holidays. But before jumping head first into the Christmas spirit, make sure you have an updated antivirus software that will protect you from infected screensavers, ringtones, e-cards and all of your other holiday downloads.

Christmas phishing scams
The busy shopping and travelling December days are breeding grounds for phishing scams. Be very careful of fake UPS package delivery emails, fake hotel wrong transaction emails or phony banking emails. If strange emails are asking you to enter your personal information (username, password, date of birth, etc.) on illegitimate sites, then run far, far away. Learn how to spot phishing scams.

Discounted hot item scams

Every holiday season there is one hot item that’s really hard to get. If you’re trying to find it online and found a deal that’s too good to be true, then it’s likely to be too good to be true. Very often, hot items on scam sites are advertised with huge discounts, but are never actually delivered. So stay on trustworthy websites that have very good reputations and standings with consumer watch groups.

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Facebook worm poses as two blonde women

Yet another attack on Facebook.

If you're a Facebook user be on your guard against the latest worm reportedly spreading on the system.
First identified by Danish security researchers at CSIS, the worm appears to have been spread via malicious links on the social networking site.
The danger, of course, is that one of your Facebook friends may have had their account compromised (maybe they were sloppy with their password security, or gave access to a rogue application) and you might be tempted into clicking on a link seemingly posted by them.
Although the links pretend to point to an image, the truth is that a malicious screensaver is lurking behind an icon of two blonde women:

When the code is run it attempts to download futher malware hosted on a compromised Israeli website.
At the time of writing, the malware is not present on the Israeli website (all that remains is a message seemingly from the hackers), but it is very possible that they are using additional websites to spread their malware attack.

Sophos products detect the malware as the Troj/Dloadr-DKK Trojan horse. If your PC becomes infected it is possible that you also have other malware on your computer, some of which may attempt to steal your banking information or compromise your PC in other ways.
Make sure that you keep informed about the latest malware attacks, scams and other threats on Facebook. Join the Sophos page on Facebook, where over 150,000 people regularly share information on threats and discuss the latest security news.

Here is a link to the full story:
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/11/29/facebook-worm-two-blonde-women/

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The 10 best smartphones of the season

For those of you looking for the latest and greatest smartphones this Christmas, here is a link to the 10 best.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45421401/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

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Facebook scam threatens to delete your account.

Here is a link to the latest attack on Facebook and your security.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/23/8980543-facebook-scam-threatens-to-delete-your-account

It appears that the perpetrators of this phishing scheme threaten to delete users' Facebook accounts unless they hand over various account details within 24 hours.

Hope you find this article useful and as always: Safe computing.

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How do you get infected with malware?

The answer to the above question is: Social engineering!

Several people have asked me this very question, so to you guys, here is your answer.
For the rest of you, here is some information to keep you safe from malware.

"As the malware landscape evolves, it's helpful to understand how malware gets onto your machine. Knowing the bad guys' strategies gives you the edge while on-line and puts you in a stronger position to defend your data and PC against compromising threats.

We all know that we should install anti-malware software, keep it up to date and run regular scans, apply Windows and application security patches when they become available, use a firewall... well, I won't bore you - you know what to do. But what kind of attacks can we expect and where are they coming from?

It's good to have defences in place to keep your PC secure in the event of an attempted malware infection but having advance warning of the enemy's tactics can help you avoid getting into tricky situations in the first place.

The most common way malware gets onto your system is via the biggest security risk on any computer system - between the chair and the keyboard. According to Microsoft's recently published Security Intelligence Report, almost 45% of infections stem from the malware writer using various social engineering tactics to persuade the user to take some kind of action that results in the user running a malicious file, thereby infecting their own machine.

This means that the malware writer doesn't have to spend time thinking of complex and ingenious ways to infiltrate your machine – they just have to present you with a credible reason to install and run their program.

Compare this idea to a street crime: imagine if someone said they were conducting a survey called “Are Modern Wallets Too Heavy?” and asked to check how much your wallet weighs. Instead of seeing it for the risk that it is, you give them your wallet, PIN number and for good measure, your mobile phone, then punch yourself in the face and hail a taxi for them to make a getaway.

That's a pretty extreme illustration but the point is that you would recognise this as a potential threat and walk away. Most people are unlikely to intentionally install malware on their machine, but if the malware employs a social engineering technique to make it appear credible, you could find yourself in trouble.

A common technique is to prey upon user's fear. People can be easily persuaded if you frighten them. The media frequently reports on cyber-crime and as we mentioned before, we're all aware of the need for an anti-malware program. Bad guys have taken full advantage of this and unleashed hundreds of legitimate looking security applications, that scan your machine then present you with a lot of scary, non-existent infections then try to trick you into buying the software to remove the infection. The best way to avoid this is to use a reputable anti-malware application like Malwarebytes.

Another common tactic is to lure the user into installing an application that will allow them to watch a video, but predictably that application turns out to be malware. Big surprise, no? To a lot of people, it is.

If you are in doubt about an application you have downloaded, you can scan it with Malwarebytes but a cool trick is to upload the file to Virus Total which will give you information about which anti-malware companies detect the file. If you see a lot of hits, it's more than likely malware and you should delete it.

For more information, check the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) guide for avoiding social engineering attacks."

Information from Lavasoft News.

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