2015 – Page 2 – CK Computer Solutions

16 March

Phishing emails

March 16, 2015Uncategorised

A phishing email attack is accomplished by cybercriminals using a simple email to lure users to log onto a phony website. This is a practice used daily and thousands of emails are sent by professional criminals who hope that its recipient responds by inputting their personal information and replying back or simply clicking a link.

Individuals who initiate phishing emails want you to believe that they are an honest to goodness legitimate company in which you have a business relationship with. Their mission is to obtain your username and password, account information and other various items like a social security number and/or date of birth that ultimately assist them in stealing your funds and identity.It is not too difficult to spot a phony email as these professional criminals tend to use poor spelling and grammar. Legitimate companies such as banks usually have auditors that proofread a large amount of emails that are sent out to their customers to ensure the email lacks spelling errors and poor grammar. If you receive an email such as this, more than likely it is a scam.
Another indicator of a phishing email is those containing link(s). If you receive this type of email do not click on the link as it may redirect you to a phony website asking you to enter personal information. Also notice if an email uses language which sounds threatening. For instance one frequent tactic seen is informing you that if you do not reply, your account or access will be closed.
Yet another popular way criminals obtain personal information is by sending out emails pretending to be from a company that you have a relationship with. Unlike the emails that just use poor grammar and spelling, this email uses graphics which makes it double as hard to tell the difference as to their legitimacy. Often they use the same colors and fonts in the company name so it can be difficult to differentiate their legitimacy. Again these have links inside them that must not be clicked particularly if it was not solicited. Also avoid opening any attachments as they often contain a malicious program that can destroy your computer.
Phishing emails are extremely serious and unfortunately they are on the rise. At first they appear harmless since they “only” ask you to verify your information but remember that our identity must be protected at all costs.

9 March

Spear Phishing and the cost to Business: An Introduction

March 9, 2015Uncategorised

One of the biggest concerns in the modern business world is the sophistication of technological fraud. One such scheme is known as “spear phishing.” This technique is a spoofing technique whereby the perpetrators target a specific organization with the sole purpose of gaining unauthorized access to the personal data, financial data, trade secrets, and so on. A large difference from normal phishing techniques is that the spoof email appears to come from someone who is within the company and in a position of authority, rather than from some separate entity (like eBay). An example of a commonly employed technique is the following: the fraudulent party finds contact information for the target company. They use this information to create a message which appears authentic, and from someone in a position of authority (such as a network administrator). The message is distributed to an employee or employees, who are asked to log into a phony page. Which requests the user name and password. Alternatively, it could be to click a link which downloads some type of malicious software such as a tracker or spyware. All it takes is for one employee to fall for this scam; the perpetrator can then pretend to be that person, using their information to gain access to whatever sensitive business information they are seeking.
One reason this technique is becoming increasingly utilized and is so successful is because the increased use of social media, email, and text messaging has made it easier to appear authentic. The reason for this is fairly straightforward: with the advent of social media, people increasingly put their likes/dislikes, occupations, degrees, and numerous other personal or identifying information on their social media sites. This gives the perpetrator an opportunity to see how these people write things, as well as to include the little personal touches which give the illusion of reality.
It is important to know from where the information is mined: the ‘about us’ page on the business website, the name of the school/class year of the employee(s) of interest, friends and contacts from social media, the business/employee(s) geographical locations, and any information about a business/employee(s) which can be found through a Google search (or in the local media, such as newspaper or on television).
Examples are the likes of someone setting up another email address similar to an account you might receive email from
christian.kortenhorst@gmail.com instead of christiankortenhorst@gmail.com (missing the .)
If an employee does fall victim, and if the business is not properly protected, the spear phishing attack can do damage before anyone even notices something is wrong. The perpetrator can hold files for ransom, steal information to sell (or delete), the network can be remotely controlled (which opens up a host of problems).
The best way to get around this is to ensure employees only open attachments from known sources, never click on links, and confirm that a link is real with the legitimate sending party prior to clicking it. The key is to ‘think before the click.’