Phishing, Spoofing, Spamming and Security

How To Protect Yourself

Additional Credits: Educause/SonicWall, Hendra Harianto Tuty, Microsoft Corporation, some images from Anti-Phishing Workgroup’s Phishing Archive,Carnegie Mellon CyLab

Dr. Harold L. “Bud” Cothern

Recognize Phishing Scams and Fraudulent E-mails

• Phishing is a type of deception designed to steal your valuable personal data, such as credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information.

• Con artists might send millions of fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to come from Web sites you trust, like your bank or credit card company, and request that you provide personal information.

Phreaking + Fishing = Phishing- Phreaking = making phone calls for free back in 70’s- Fishing = Use bait to lure the target

Phishing in 1995Target: AOL usersPurpose: getting account passwords for free timeThreat level: lowTechniques: Similar names ( www.ao1.com for www.aol.com ), social engineering

Phishing in 2001Target: Ebayers and major banksPurpose: getting credit card numbers, accountsThreat level: mediumTechniques: Same in 1995, keylogger

Phishing in 2007

Target: Paypal, banks, ebay

Purpose: bank accounts

Threat level: high

Techniques: browser vulnerabilities, link obfuscation

History of Phishing

• 2,000,000 emails are sent• 5% get to the end user – 100,000 (APWG)• 5% click on the phishing link – 5,000 (APWG)• 2% enter data into the phishing site –100 (Gartner)• $1,200 from each person who enters data (FTC)• Potential reward: $120,000

A bad day phishin’, beats a good day workin’

In 2005 David Levi made over $360,000 from 160 people using an eBay Phishing scam

• Over 28,000 unique phishing attacks reported in Dec. 2006, about double the number from 2005

• Estimates suggest phishing affected 2 million US citizens and cost businesses billions of dollars in 2005

• Additional losses due to consumer fears

Phishing: A Growing Problem

What Does a Phishing Scam Look Like?

• As scam artists become more sophisticated, so do their phishing e-mail messages and pop-up windows.

• They often include official-looking logos from real organizations and other identifying information taken directly from legitimate Web sites.

• Employ visual elements from target site• DNS Tricks:

–www.ebay.com.kr–www.ebay.com@192.168.0.5–www.gooogle.com–Unicode attacks

• JavaScript Attacks–Spoofed SSL lock

• Certificates–Phishers can acquire certificates for domains they own–Certificate authorities make mistakes

Current Phishing Techniques

• Socially aware attacks Mine social relationships from public data Phishing email appears to arrive from someone known to the victim Use spoofed identity of trusted organization to gain trust Urge victims to update or validate their account Threaten to terminate the account if the victims not reply Use gift or bonus as a bait Security promises

• Context-aware attacks“Your bid on eBay has won!”“The books on your Amazon wish list are on sale!”

Spear-Phishing: Improved Target Selection

Another Example:

But wait…

WHOIS 210.104.211.21:

Location: Korea, Republic Of

Even bigger problem:

I don’t have an account with US Bank!

Images from Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Phishing Archive

Here are a few phrases to look for if you think an e-mail message is a phishing scam.

• "Verify your account."Businesses should not ask you to send passwords, login names, Social Security numbers, or other personal information through e-mail. If you receive an e-mail from anyone asking you to update your credit card information, do not respond: this is a phishing scam.

• "If you don't respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed."These messages convey a sense of urgency so that you'll respond immediately without thinking.

How To Tell If An E-mail Message is Fraudulent

How To Tell If An E-mail Message is Fraudulent (cont’d)• "Dear Valued Customer."Phishing e-mail messages are usually sent out in bulk and often do not contain your first or last name.

• "Click the link below to gain access to your account."HTML-formatted messages can contain links or forms that you can fill out just as you'd fill out a form on a Web site. The links that you are urged to click may contain all or part of a real company's name and are usually "masked," meaning that the link you see does not take you to that address but somewhere different, usually a phony Web site.

• Resting the mouse pointer on the link reveals the real Web address. The string of cryptic numbers looks nothing like the company's Web address, which is a suspicious sign.

Con artists also use Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that resemble the name of a well-known company but are slightly altered by adding, omitting, or transposing letters.

For example, the URL "www.microsoft.com" could appear instead as:

www.micosoft.com www.mircosoft.com www.verify-microsoft.com

How To Tell If An E-mail Message is Fraudulent (cont’d)

• Never respond to an email asking for personal information • Always check the site to see if it is secure. Call the phone number if necessary• Never click on the link on the email. Retype the address in a new window• Keep your browser updated• Keep antivirus definitions updated• Use a firewall

P.S: Always shred your home documents before discarding them.