Celebrities are frequently featured in phishing sites. Now, phishers have taken an interest in targeting French users by using teenage celebrities as bait. Some of the celebrities recently used as bait were the singers Jojo, Justin Bieber, and Zac Efron. The phishing sites were hosted on free Web hosting sites.

In the first example, the phishing site spoofed the login page of an email service of a popular information services brand. The phishing page contained an image of Jojo and the contents of the page were altered to promote the singer. The legitimate brand does not promote any celebrities, but phishers modified the contents of the page to entice users. Phishers believe that by using popular celebrities they can gain a larger audience, which increases their chances of harvesting user credentials. After the login credentials have been entered, users are redirected to the legitimate website.

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Co-Author: Avdhoot Patil

Lucky draw prizes are commonly used as bait in phishing schemes. The fake lottery prizes observed last Christmas and the charity lottery are examples. In July 2012, phishers offered a smart phone as a lucky draw prize. The phishing site spoofed a telecommunications company based in France and was hosted on servers based in Fulshear, USA.

The phishing site was in French and the title translates to “Congratulations”. A message on the phishing site stated that a lucky draw takes place every day and that the user won the draw for the current day. In this case, the lucky draw prize mentioned was a smart phone. To attain the prize, the user was required to enter personal information, including their:

• User name
• Surname...

Attention—in some form or capacity, we humans (sorry Googlebot if you are indexing this) seek and crave attention. As infants we crave attention from our parents, as children our friends, and as teens and adults, usually, from our peers, or those who have a common interest or understanding with us. Correspondingly, we all like to brag about our accomplishments to a certain extent. This is why social media has become so popular worldwide: it provides an audience for those who like to be heard.

In the old days (before the Internet became commonplace), when hackers compromised a computer, it was rather difficult to show off their feats to their friends. Sure they could talk endlessly about their triumphs, but how many times would it take for Mom, Dad, Brother, and Sister to understand, especially if they couldn’t tell the difference between a baud rate and a bald RAT?

So, what’s the point of doing things that only a few people can do if you don’t...

A new Android malware has been found on third party Android markets. Symantec has identified 18 apps that have been Trojanized with the threat and added detection as Android.Vdloader.
 

Figure 1. List of malicious apps identified
 

A 3D waterfall wallpaper may be displayed after the threat is installed.
 

Figure 2. 3D Waterfall wallpaper displayed after installation
 

The threat...