Cheap airfare > Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Whether we like it or not, we are all living in the Information Age. We have nothing left but adapt to rapidly developing information technology, no matter who we are and what we do for living. The Internet, in particular, means for us boundless opportunities in life and business - but also lots of dangers unheard of just a decade ago. We should be aware of these dangers if we want to use the huge potential of the Internet and to avoid the hazards it brings us.Warning: There are Websites You'd Better Not VisitPhishing websites Thanks to authors of numerous articles on this topic, "classic" phishing technique is relatively well known. This scam involves setting bogus websites and luring people to visit them, as a rule, by links in emails.

Phishing website is disguised to look like a legitimate one -- of a bank or a credit card company, and users are invited to provide their identifying information. Sites of this kind are used solely to steal users' passwords, PIN numbers, SSNs and other confidential information. At first phishing consisted only of a social engineering scam in which phishers spammed consumer e-mail accounts with letters ostensibly from banks. The more people got aware of the scam, the less spelling mistakes these messages contained, and the more these fraudulent websites resembled legitimate ones. Phishers are getting smarter.

They eagerly learn; there is enough money involved here to turn criminals into earnest students.Keyloggers and TrojansSince about November 2004 there has been a lot of publications of a scheme which at first was seen as a new kind of phishing. This technique includes contaminating a PC with a Trojan horse program. The problem is that this Trojan contains a keylogger which lurks at the background until the user of the infected PC visits one of the specified websites. Then the keylogger comes to life to do what it was created for -- to steal information. It seems that this technique is actually a separate scam aimed at stealing personal information and such attacks are on the rise.

Security vendor Symantec warns about commercialisation of malware -- cybercriminals prefer cash to fun, so various kinds of information-stealing software are used more actively.Fraudulent websites are on the riseWebsense Security Labs -- a well-known authority in information security -- noticed a dramatic rise in the number of fraudulent websites as far back as in the second half of 2004. These sites pose as ones for e-commerce; they encourage users to apply for a reward or purchase something, of course never delivering the product or paying money. The most popular areas for such fraud are online pharmacies, lottery scams, and loan / mortgage sites. Experts predict there will be more fake merchants in future and their scams will become more sophisticated.A Hybrid Scam In April Panda Software warned Internet users of a new particularly brazen scam aimed at stealing confidential information. The technique used here looks like a hybrid between phishing and a fraudulent website.

Panda Software identified several websites offering cheap airline tickets which in fact weren't selling anything; the aim was to cheat users out of credit card details. This scam is very simple; the thieves simply wait until some unsuspecting user who is searching for, say, airline ticket offers, finds their site offering dirt-cheap airline tickets. Really pleased with himself and looking forward to the trip, the user fills in the form, entering his credit card number, expiry date and verification value (CVV). As soon as these details have been entered, an error page appears; it tells the user that the transaction has been unsuccessful, and offers instructions on how to pay for the ticket by postal money order. So the user may well be fooled twice.

He loses his credit card details, putting them right into the hands of cyber-crooks, and then loses money, if decides to buy the ticket by money order.Of course, these sites have already been disabled, but who knows whether (or better to say when) other ones will appear again, this time offering all kinds of products. Malicious websites are especially dangerous. Cybercriminals create them exclusively to execute malicious code on the visitors' computers. Sometimes hackers infect legitimate sites with malicious code. Bad news for blog readers: blogs can be contaminated, too.

Since January, Websense Security Labs has discovered hundreds of these "toxic" blogs set by hackers.When unsuspecting users visit malicious sites, various nasty applications are downloaded and executed on their computers. Unfortunately, more and more often these applications contain keyloggers--software programs for intercepting data. Keyloggers, as it is clear from the name of the program, log keystrokes --but that's not all. They capture everything the user is doing -- keystrokes, mouse clicks, files opened and closed, sites visited. A little more sophisticated programs of this kind also capture text from windows and make screenshots (record everything displayed on the screen) - so the information is captured even if the user doesn't type anything, just opens the views the file.In February and March 2005, Websense Security Labs researched and identified about 8-10 new keylogger variants and more than 100 malicious websites which are hosting these keyloggers EACH WEEK.

From November of 2004 through December 2004 these figures were much smaller: 1-2 new keylogger variants and 10-15 new malicious websites per week. There is by all means a disturbing tendency--the number of brand-new keyloggers and malicious website is growing, and growing rapidly.What a user can do to avoid these sites?As for phishing, the best advice is not to click any links in any email, especially if it claims to be from a bank. Opening an attachment of a spam message can also trigger the execution of malicious program, for example a keylogger or a keylogger-containing Trojan horse.As for fraudulent websites, maybe buying goods only from trusted vendors will help -- even if it is a bit more expensive.As for malicious websites... "Malicious websites that host adult entertainment and shopping content can exploit Internet Explorer vulnerabilities to run code remotely without user interaction."(a quote from Websense's report). What can a user do about it? Not much, but avoiding adult sites and buying only from known and trusted online stores will reduce the risk.

Hackers also attract traffic to malicious websites by sending a link through spam or spim (the analog of spam for instant messaging (IM). So a good advice never follow links in spam is worth remembering once more..

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

I was recently reminded of a TV advert promoting a travelcompany. In the ad a character was wandering about awilderness calling out "Is there anybody there?". The ideaof the ad was that everyone had gone off on cheap holidaysbought from the travel company.OK, so what's the point!I was reminded of this while searching the web for jointventure partners for an extremely lucrative deal I wanted tooffer them. I was more than a little surprised at what Ifound; or what I didn't find more like.I couldn't believe how difficult it was on a lot of websitesto find an email address I could use to contact thewebmaster or someone at the company. Granted, some had oneof those featureless online message forms.

I don't knowabout you, but I find them very impersonal, somewhat akin toposting a message in a bottle, tossing it in the sea andhoping sometime someone will answer.I much prefer a proper bona fide email address that I canenter in the "To:" box of my email, and a name of a realperson to converse...

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

Cheap airfare > WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

Cialis- Strong Deterrent for that Torrid Affair

Everyone wants variety in his or her life no matter if it is required in food stuff they are consuming or movies they are watching. People tend to get bore by eating or watching same stuff, human nature is like that only. Lives of most individuals become dull due to rigidity and same routines. To come out of it people try their hands in different things, they sometime even end up consuming drugs or having that torrid affair with friend's girlfriend or any other women to bring change in their sex life.
Such illicit relationships are very much apparent in the contemporary world especially due to emergence of various facilities like online dating, chatting and video conferencing thanks to the internet.

With bandwidth becoming cheaper, internet is spreading all across the globe which is making world a smaller place, with easy communication between people living far apart. As a result, a married person living in Asia having affair with a western partner over the internet through...

Cialis- Strong Deterrent for that Torrid Affair

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Guide to Cheap Annual Travel Insurance

Vacations are for fun, it means leaving behind your job and responsibilities for a while. Having holiday travel insurance is one way of putting your mind at complete rest. It's a lot easier to enjoy your trip if you know that you are covered from luggage lost to sickness.

The further your trip will be, the more you will need holiday travel insurance. This is common sense, as international trips are costly, so there's a need to protect your hard earned travel money.

So wherever you go, whether it's to a local or international destination, it's very important that you have the necessary insurance coverage.

Cheap annual travel insurance is an alternative choice for those budget- conscious travelers who are making more than one trip a year. The main feature of the annual travel insurance against regular travel insurance is that it saves you money. For a once annual payment, you become covered whenever you travel during the year. The terms and conditions...

Guide to Cheap Annual Travel Insurance

Cheap airfare > Guide to Cheap Annual Travel Insurance

Reward Your Children With the Christmas Gift They Really Want, Scooters & Pocket Bikes

Electric scooters and pocket bikes are one of the hottest presents for Christmas this year because they're so cheap to own, and they help keep the air we breathe much cleaner than alternative forms of transportation. Due to the demand, many people who want a scooter for Christmas this year may not have been able to receive one. To meet that demand and celebrate the extreme popularity of these fast electric scooters and pocket bikes, Extremely Cheap Gas Powered Scooters is proud to announce a blowout Christmas sale.Two of the hottest scooter products this year are available with special prices and terms for a limited time:-????49cc gas powered pocket bikes, 39 Inches long & features a 49cc air cooled 2 stroke gasoline powered engine with front & rear vented disk brakes, racing tires (slicks), manual pull start, cool frame design, full faring design, racing style gas tank, sporty speedometer & a tinted windshield. Available for just $279!Reward Your Children With the Christmas Gift They Really Want, Scooters & Pocket Bikes
Cheap airfare > Reward Your Children With the Christmas Gift They Really Want, Scooters & Pocket Bikes

Reward Your Children With the Christmas Gift They Really Want, Scooters & Pocket Bikes

Ten Ways to Cut Marketing Costs

Marketing is a creative activity, you can keep finding new and better ways to make that impact and suck in those sales, even if you have a limited budget.There are those that want free offers all the time, and it's difficult for new businesses to get going without them. But everything DECENT costs I'm afraid, and that's a fact of life ? unless ofcourse you see yourself doing link exchanges and written articles for the rest of your livesThen yes, there are free ad opportunities out there! But they are useless!oMake your communications more striking, by including images and attention grabbing layouts. This can include: Brochures, Direct Mail, Emails, and WebsiteoBuy ad space on Search Engines. This is quite cheap if done correctly via Adwords. MSN charge ?1500 per month.

Related websites are in abundance ? are you using them? Have YOU contacted them recently?oHost an Event to generate publicity. It doesn't need to be expensive.oSend out Press Releases every 3 months. Stick a news...

Ten Ways to Cut Marketing Costs

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Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Cheap airfare > Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites

PMC Telecom Prepares for Continued VoIP Market Expansion

Manchester, UK (ContentDesk via ContentDesk Direct) December 13, 2005 -- PMC Telecom (http://www.pmctelecom.co.uk), already one of the leading suppliers of telephony equipment in the UK, is preparing for continued expansion of VoIP use in Britain, with new product ranges to cope with demand.VoIP Voice over IP telephony is fast becoming a revolution in telephone use. With just a home computer...

Phishing, Fraudulent and Malicious Websites Cheap airfare PMC Telecom Prepares for Continued VoIP Market Expansion voip

Cheap airfare > PMC Telecom Prepares for Continued VoIP Market Expansion

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