Posts Tagged: ‘Malware’

Scam of the day – May 20, 2013 – Critical Microsoft updates

May 20, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

As I often tell you, it is critical to keep your software programs updated with the latest security patches.  Identity thieves and scammers are constantly locating and exploiting flaws in the software we all use in an effort to steal from us, make us victims of identity theft or gain control of our computers to make them a part of a bot net of zombie computers that they can use to spread viruses and malware as well as attack companies.  Consequently I regularly report on the latest software security updates for you to download.  Microsoft recently announced new updates for Windows, Internet Explorer, NET Framework, Lync, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows Essential.  Since everyone uses at least one of these programs, it is important for you to update your programs.

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Here is a link you can trust to the official Microsoft updates that you should download as soon as possible:  https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA13-134A

If you have not already done so, you should consider making future updates automatic.  Links to enable you to do this can be found on the page that I am linking you to above.

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Scam of the day – May 19, 2013 – Fidelity phishing scam

May 19, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Phishing, as I have described on Scamicide and in my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age” is the name for the tactic used by identity thieves by which you are lured to a phony website to provide information used to make you a victim of identity theft.  Phishing often starts with an email from a company with you do business or a federal or state agency.  The email indicates that there is some problem or other matter to which you must give your immediate attention and a link is provided for you to purportedly go to the website of the company or agency, however, in fact, you are either sent to a phony website for the company or agency where information is solicited that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, by clicking on the link you download a keystroke logging malware program that steals all of the information from your computer including your Social Security number, credit card number, passwords and other information used to also make you a victim of identity theft.

Recently, I received an email purportedly from Fidelity Investments.  As phishing attempts go, this one was pretty flawed.  The email address from which it came was not an email address of Fidelity Investments.  In fact, it was that of a private person who most likely was a part of a botnet by which his computer was being manipulated by an identity thief.  If you want more information about botnets, you can check out the archives of Scamicide or read about them in my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age.”  Other flaws in the phishing email were the lack of my name appearing anywhere which indicates that it is just a general phishing email sent out to many people by the identity thief, and the lack of a Fidelity logo.

Here is a copy of the email I received.  DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK.

“Account Status NotificationWe have noticed unusual activity on your account. Due to this, we need you to verify your account information for more efficient use of our Banking system: Please confirm your account information today by clicking on the link below: https://fidelity.secure.com/Logon.aspx?LOB=RBGLogon=user=&email&Security Adviser
©

Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. All rights reserved”

TIPS
Never click on links in emails unless you are sure they are legitimate.  Unfortunately, you can never be sure when you receive an email if the email is legitimate so you should always be skeptical and make it a habit not to click on links until you have verified that they are legitimate by contacting the company or agency that is indicated as having sent the email to confirm whether or not the email and link are legitimate.  Look for the telltale signs that it is a phony, such as an email address for the sender that is not that of the real company or agency and the failure to direct the email to you directly by name.  You can contact the company or agency by phone or email directly to confirm whether or not the email you receive was legitimate.  Finally keep your Firewall and security software up to date to help protect you from viruses and malware.  Security software is certainly not perfect, but it does help.
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Scam of the day – May 8, 2013 – Iron Man 3 scam

May 8, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

The movie Iron Man 3 is already a huge hit with early box office figures setting records around the world.  Pirated versions of movies being distributed on the Internet is a major problem for the movie industry, but it is also a major problem for consumers.  I don’t condone buying cheap bootlegs of movies over the Internet; that is a crime.  However, I understand that many people will be tempted to purchase or even get for free what they think are pirated versions of popular movies.  Scammers understand this too, which is why there are already more than a hundred websites, not connected with the studio that produced Iron Man 3, claiming that they have copies of Iron Man 3 for purchase or free in some instances.  These sites require you to download a file containing a video player.  The problem is that by downloading this video player, you may be downloading keystroke logging malware along with or instead of the promised video player.  This malware can steal all of your personal information from your computer including credit card numbers, bank account numbers and passwords and turn you into a victim of identity theft.  Facebook is also being used by the identity thieves to spread links for free copies of Iron Man 3 that indeed may well be tainted with malware.  Many of these links ask for your credit card, which you should not provide and end up giving you nothing.  Other links lure you in with the promise of a free streaming of Iron Man 3, but then take you through a survey for which the scammer gets paid and at the end you still do not get a copy of Iron Man 3.

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Never click on links or download files unless you know what you are clicking on or downloading is legitimate.  Obviously you cannot trust someone who is promising to provide you with a pirated product.  The risk of downloading malware is just too great.  Pay your money and go to the movie in the theater or if you want a home version, it won’t be too long before the movie is legitimately available online.

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Scam of the day – May 1, 2013 – Denial of Service attacks

May 1, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) is the name for a tactic that has increasingly been used by hackers against major financial institutions.  Most recently, online broker Charles Schwab & Co. was disabled and inaccessible by its customers for more than an hour because of such an attack.  Earlier in April, American Express and Wells Fargo were victims of such an attack and, in a major attack a few months ago, the websites of JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank and Sun Trust all were temporarily shut down due to a DDoS attack.  A DDos attack is accomplished when a website is flooded with nuisance requests from tens of thousands of computers all being controlled by a single controlling computer.  This network of computer is called a BotNet.  Regular readers of Scamicide are familiar with the term BotNet which has also been called Zombie computers and refers to a network of infected computers that are infected by hackers and then controlled by the hackers to send out their viruses and other malware.  The attacked websites are not able to handle the huge volume of computer hits, which results in the affected website being closed down.  It is thought that many, if not all of these recent DDoS attacks have originated from the same hackers in Eastern Europe and there is concern that this is just the beginning of major computer attacks against American financial institutions.

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So what does this mean to you?  Although both the government and the private sector are working hard to defend DDoS attacks and, in fact, are making progress in doing so,it can be expected that these and even more sophisticated attacks will be coming against our financial institutions including banks and brokerage houses in which you have money and investments.  You can’t just put your head in the sand, but you can prepare yourself for such attacks.  Make sure that you have backup records of your financial accounts on computer discs rather than just on your hard drive which can be accessed or even destroyed by hackers.  You also can use USB  flash drives and external hard drives.  You can also store information in the cloud, but that brings a range of different security issues.  You also may wish to keep readily accessible paper records of your accounts, but make sure that you keep them secure in your home.  Even friends and family members have been known to steal such documents for identity theft purposes.  Finally, you may wish to inquire of all companies with which you do business as to how they maintain both the security of their records from attack and their online presence.

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Scam of the day – April 7, 2013 – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court a victim of identity theft

April 6, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

As I have told you many times, identity theft can happen to anyone.   In fact, statistics and trends would indicate that it is not a matter of if you will become a victim of identity theft, but when.  No one is immune to identity theft, not Michelle Obama, not Donald Trump, not Tiger Woods and now, not Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.  The Associated Press recently disclosed that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was a victim of identity theft when someone got access to his credit card.  At this time, it is not known whether the breach of the Chief Justice’s security was due to the use of a skimmer, malware in a card scanner, stealing of the card or a data breach either in Justice Roberts’ computer or the computers of any company that held his card information.  What is known is that this type of identity theft can happen to anyone, regardless of who you are and how much you try to protect your security.

So what do you do?

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Don’t make it easy for identity thieves.  As tempting as it is, don’t leave your credit card information on file with online retailers such as Amazon.  If they have a data breach, you are in trouble.  Maintain your own computer’s Firewall and security software up to date and don’t download files or click on links from websites or in emails unless you are absolutely positive that the website or the email is legitimate.  Check credit card readers and ATMS for signs of a skimmer or being tampered with before inserting your card.  Finally, monitor your credit card statements carefully each month to check for evidence of a breach of security.  The earlier you discover a breach, the better.

You can get some comfort over the limit of your liability being only $50 for a stolen credit card, but remember, potentially there is no limit for stolen debit cards, so limit your use of your debit cards to use solely as an ATM card.

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Scam of the day – April 5, 2013 – Dump Memory Grabber malware

April 4, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

A new type of malware that is infecting credit card readers used at retail establishments as well as ATMs is posing a huge problem for American consumers using their credit cards and debit cards for purchases.  The malware is called the Dump Memory Grabber malware.    It is believed that the malware is the creation of Russian criminals.  Once installed on a credit card reader such as you would commonly find at the checkout counter of many stores or an ATM, the malware is able to read the information encoded on the credit card or debit card, such as the name of the card holder, the account number and the card’s expiration date.  This information is transmitted from the card reader or ATM to the criminals automatically electronically.  The information once received is used to creat fake credit cards that can be used to access the credit or in the case of debit cards, the bank accounts of the people whose card information has been stolen.  So far, credit and debit cards of Chase, Capital One, Citibank and Union Bank of California have all been hit by this scam.

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Unlike the “skimmer” which I have described before in scamicide.com, a person using an infected credit card reader or ATM has no way of knowing if the machine has been tampered with.  The best thing you can do is to make sure that you constantly monitor your credit card bills for unauthorized purchases and report them immediately to your credit card issuer.  Federal law limits your liability to no more than $50 and most credit card issuers will not even charge you that amount.  However, with a debit card you do not get the same protection.  If you do not discover that your debit card has been compromised promptly, you risk losing your entire bank account tied to the card and even if you do discover the breach immediately, your account will be frozen while your bank investigates the matter.  My advice is not to use your debit card ever for purchases.  Only use it as an ATM card.

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Scam of the day – April 4, 2013 – Microsoft Windows update scam

April 4, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Recently many people have been receiving a phony email that purports to come from Microsoft.  In fact, the email address appears as privacy@microsoft.com.  This is not, however, a legitimate email from Microsoft, but rather it is a phishing scam that is intended to get you to provide personal information such as your email provider, your username and your password.  Once this information is provided, it is used to make the responder to the email a victim of identity theft.  It also can be used to send emails from your email address to friends of yours who may trust the emails because they appear to come from you.  This enables the identity thief to send malware in emails that appear to come from you to lure your friends to download the malware by clicking on links in the emails sent using your email address.

Here is an example of the phony email currently being circulated:

“Dear Windows User,

It has come to our attention that your Microsoft windows Installation records are out of date. Every Windows installation has to be tied to an email account for daily update.

This requires you to verify the Email Account. Failure to verify your records will result in account suspension. Click in the Verify button below and enter your login information on the following page to Confirm your records.

VERIFY

Thank you, Microsoft Windows Team.”

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Emails like this may appear to be legitimate, but as is the case in this email, the grammar is sometimes not correct.  In this particular email, capital letters are misused.  In any event you should always be skeptical of any email that requests personal information.  When in doubt, you should contact the real company, in this case Microsoft, to confirm whether or not the email is legitimate.

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Scam of the day – April 1, 2013 – Android identity theft danger

March 31, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

A new strain of a malicious software that is unwittingly being downloaded by Android smart phone users is presenting a great risk of identity theft and even enabling the identity thieves to avoid authentication programs used for electronic money transfers on Android smartphones placing Android users in extreme danger.  A patch for this particular malware has still not been developed so your efforts must be focused on avoiding the malware on your own.  This new malware program is primarily being spread through a phony email that appears to come from the IRS.  It is important to remember that the IRS will never initiate communications with you by email so if you receive an email that purports to be from the IRS, you should delete it immediately.

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A good rule for keeping your computers, smart phones and other portable devices malware free is to never click on links or download anything that comes in an email unless you are absolutely sure that it is legitimate.  Even if you receive an email from a friend with a link or download, you should consider that your friend’s email may have been hacked and the email you received is not from your friend, but rather from an identity thief.  A good practice is to confirm with any friend who sends a link or download before you actually click on the link or download the file.  Even then you run the risk that your friend may unwittingly be passing on tainted malware without knowing it.  It is also important not to install apps on your Android device unless it is distributed through Google Play.  Getting apps elsewhere carries too much of a risk that the app may contain malware.  You should also make sure that the “Allow Unknown Sources” option in the security settings of your Android phone is disable so that only apps that come from Google Play can be installed on your phone.

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Scam of the day – March 26, 2013 – Latest ransomware warning

March 25, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued a new warning about the danger of ransomware.  I have previously warned you about this type of  scam on December 3, 2012 and on January 19, 2013.  Ransomware scams occur when you find that you are unable to use your computer and you receive an email message or a notice on your screen indicating that your use of your computer has been frozen due to illegal activity being detected on your computer.  A common variation of this scam being done now purports to be from the Department of Homeland Security and its National Cyber Security Division.  You are told that you need to pay a fine before your computer will be unfrozen and you have access to it again.  In fact, the freezing of your computer has not been done by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI or any other governmental agency.  It was done by a scammer who through your unwitting downloading of malware that happened when you unknowingly went to tainted website or downloaded the malware when clicking on a link or an attachment in an email that contained the malware.  It is for this reason, that I am always reminding you never to click on links and download attachments unless you are absolutely positive that they are legitimate.

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The best way to deal with ransomware is to avoid it in the first place.  Maintain a good firewall on your computer and install and maintain up-to-date security software.  Also, never click on links or download attachments unless you are absolutely sure that they are legitimate.  Even if the link or download is in an email or a Facebook posting that appears to come from a friend of yours, their account may have been hacked and the communication may be from a scammer.  Never pay a ransom to regain control of your computer.  There is no guarantee that the criminal who froze your computer will let you off the hook.  Rather, have a computer professional go through your computer to find the source of the problem and resolve it.  It is also important to remember that no legitimate agency will freeze your computer and make you pay a fine to unfreeze it.

Finally, if you are a victim of ransomware, here is a link to Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center with links and instructions for removing ransomware infections from your computer: http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/shared/ransomware.aspx#recover

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Scam of the day – March 15, 2013 – Important Adobe Flash Player Updates

March 14, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Adobe, which makes the flash Player used by many of us on our computers and portable devices has just issued new security updates to correct vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers to install malware on your computer or portable device that would enable the hacker to steal all of the information from your computer as well as control your computer and make it part of a botnet, a network of computers taken over by hackers that use your computer to spread malware.  It is important to install these latest software security updates as soon as possible.  As I have often said, hackers are constantly working to detect and exploit security flaws in the software we use.  Software developers are working just as hard to plug up vulnerabilities as they are discovered.  Therefore it is critical to your personal security to install updates as soon as they are available.

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Here is a link to the security bulletin of Adobe which will provide you with all the assistance you need to download the proper security update for your particular computer or portable device.

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb13-09.html

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