Security Response

Stock markets all over the world are seeing a downturn due to the current economy. The Indian markets were no exception to this trend until the Indian election results were declared. Political experts predicted that there would be a fractured mandate; however, the India Election 2009 resulted in a single party winning a majority of the seats. This means that the Indian population can now expect a stable government. This event set such a positive mood in the Indian stock market that it went up nearly 15 percent within seconds of opening on Monday, May 18, 2009. Taking into account that people may try to invest during this period, spammers are sending messages, discussing profits on investments based on their bogus tips.

These spammers claim to be the only research firm in India that delivers 100 percent accurate results. They also state that more than 5,500 people across India earned profits from their stock tips. They have been delivering a profitability ratio of 85 percent...

Instant messaging (IM) applications are widely used nowadays, and while more and more people use them, they’ve also become increasingly feature heavy. Besides the original chat function, IM applications have also integrated other useful features such as blogging, photo albums, online games, etc. More functions enhance the user’s Internet surfing experience, help people to share information and thoughts, and even allow users to manage their assets online.

While people are enjoying the convenience brought by advanced technologies and services, hackers are also aiming at the information that people are increasingly putting on the Internet, especially when the information is profitable. Online account information is definitely one of them.

A recent security event is a warning to us all. It was discovered that people’s IM account information is available online by searching keywords such as “[IM USERNAME] password txt filetype:txt.” Hundreds...

While many forms of online mischief require some degree of technical sophistication on the part of the miscreant, we often see forms of attack that are quite simple. One case in point is the phishing attack. In many ways, phishing attacks are at the low end of the totem pole from a technical sophistication standpoint. In fact, ready-made phishing kits can be purchased in the underground economy (though the buyer should beware!), and many aspects of the attack can effectively be outsourced.
 
For a while, banking and other financial services sites bore the brunt of the phishers’ attention spans. It’s not surprising. Phishing is a financially motivated crime, so to understand the modus operandi of a phisher, all you have to do is follow the money. During the last year and a half or so we have noticed an interesting trend, in that social networking sites have become a much more popular target for phishers.
 
In some cases, social networking...

Spammers have declared open season on Memorial Day. Observed in the United States on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day memorializes those men and women who lost their lives in American military service. This year, it will celebrated on May 25.

Memorial Day spam made its appearance early last week. These emails mainly contained health-related spam and offers selling Memorial Day flags. Health-related spam has URLs that lead users to open online pharmacy stores. Spam emails linked to Memorial Day flags claim to offer the free home delivery of discounted rate flags. A few other spam samples have injected legitimate news articles related to Memorial Day in the email body as an attempt at obfuscation.

The following are a few of the subject lines used in the Memorial Day spam...