Phishing Sites: Avoidance and Damage Control

Today's posting is designed to help the business education student, in particular, the computer science student in understanding the concept of phishing,  recognizing when it may be happening, and what to do if it does.

Phishing, the act of deceiving an internet user into believing they are doing business with a legitimate organization by creating a fake website.

PandaLabs recently reported a high of 57,000 fake websites created in one week, designed to steal from various internet users.  About 80% of them employ phishing techniques to trick users into entering personal information that could be used to access users accounts.  Computer science and business education students are common targets for such activity due to the amount of business done in an online environment coupled with their lack of in-depth experience with such activity.  One can see from the chart below how widespread the nature of the attacks really is today.

Chart shows business categories targeted by phishers and respective proportion of fake sites.

(Credit: PandaLabs)

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20016026-245.html?tag=rtcol;inTheNewsNow#ixzz0zCKYGVj6

  
Panda Labs' study showed that 375 branded firms were used as the 'bait' companies with eBay and Western Union being used 54% of the time when combined. Particular attention should be paid to anything coming in the name of either company. Phishing works by sending an email that appears to be from one of the major banks or other internet-based companies to potential customers of the organizations.  They typically claim to need the user's personal information to verify or update the account.  Once the user enters the information into the form provided or the website they are directed to, the scam goes into action.  The con-artists will then attempt to use the personal data to access the real accounts in an attempt to steal money or perhaps the user's identity.  Once this is done it is very difficult for the user to recoup lost funds and correct credit history damage.

Major providers of internet security tips, such as Microsoft offer information free of charge on sites such as: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phishing.mspx?ifs=0 or the video below.  (If the video does not play in your video display, it can be located at www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phishing/video1.mspx)

The bottom line in internet security and with phishing in particular is to be cautious and question everything.  Keep all passwords as strong as you can make them by not including proper names, birthdays, or numbers other can guess like addresses or zip codes. When in doubt, research it!  If that does not provide enough comfort, don't reply to the questionable requests and report them as potential scams.  The FBI maintains a website dedicated to identifying scam emails and websites and offers a reporting link for suspicious activity.  The website can be found at http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm.

 Be cautious! Be safe!

Communicating Across the Blogosphere

In the news today was a story about two near-Earth objects that were "close" to colliding with the Earth.  They were so close that they would have passed between us and the moon had the alignment been right. The sky watchers patted themselves on the back for spotting both objects three days ago as they approached Earth and calculated that they were going to miss us by 154,000 and 49,088 miles respectively.  Measuring only 32 to 65 feet in diameter and 20 to 46 feet in diameter the protectors of Earth's personal space deemed them of little danger to our well being.  Obviously they've never had a bus or large SUV land on their house while traveling well over the speed of sound!

“Science is nothing but perception.” Plato

 While the astronomy club at my high school would be exceedingly proud of such a discovery, I am not as impressed by the discovery and subsequent low-speed dissemination of the fact that not only one asteroid, but two asteroids were going to pass by so closely.  The group credited for discovering the passersby watches anything within 28 million miles of Earth so theses two diminutive objects were fairly close when discovered.  That begs the question, "Why did it take so long to get the word out?" If Paul Revere had dallied as much on his midnight ride the British would not only have invaded, but taken up residency before the militia could have mustered.

Asteroids passing within .2 & .6 lunar distances

The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, AZ was the first to spot and report the objects to smart people that calculated the orbit and decided we were going to survive the passing, three days hence.  I only found out about the situation today, after both asteroids had sailed passed harmlessly.  I was disappointed because I didn't have enough warning to get my doomsday signs ready beforehand.

As relieved as I was to survive the near calamity. I was dismayed at the turn-around time in letting the general public know about it as it was happening.  What if the computers had made a mistake and they were going to enter the atmosphere?  What then?  My suggestion is that the next time it happens the could just blog the results and everybody would know about it by the second coffee of the morning.  If they had tweeted it, people would have found out as they came out of their favorite coffee shop with the first cup of Joe.  At least the Western world would have been informed.

The speed and accuracy the net can offer for the dissemination of information, opinion, and advice is mind boggling at times.  The use of the appropriate technology to inform people across state, national, and continental boundaries can easily enhance our ability to communicate time-sensitive and critical information with the people that need the information.  The blogosphere can be every bit as vast as the stratosphere, yet it is so connected that it feels like being right next door.  NASA, next time, blog us or tweet us!