Posts Tagged ‘Electronic Theft’

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Malware Creeping into Portable Documents

By Dawn in Crime, Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, Hacking, MSI Detective Services, Technology at January 18th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

Although the picture in this story shows a book for “dummies,” it would take some extremely intelligent people to stay one step ahead of the constant attacks being made on corporations by cyber-criminals. This book wouldn’t really help you very much. You might need a Master’s degree in computer programming at minimum.

Malware designed to damage computer systems is now being secreted into portable documents, commonly known as PDD, by cyber-criminals whose efforts usually are thwarted by antivirus software. Everyone should have antivirus software on their computers – that is Computer Protection 101.

These PDF attacks are said to be aimed at corporate and government institutions and according to Defense analysts cited in online commentaries. The attacks are part of sophisticated schemes aimed at extracting information from systems otherwise thought to be firewalled and secure.

Several corporate sources confirmed defense organizations were targeted in the attacks. The attacks not only appear to be well-funded, but they could come from an unknown country or corporate entity. This, of course, makes it harder to track down these cyber-criminals.

This latest cyber-threat became news after warnings came from the computer software company Symantec, along with comments from defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin and software provider Adobe that acknowledged the risk.

Cyber-criminals trying to take advantage of the alleged weakness in Adobe’s PDF reading and editing software use a well-known family of malware called Sykipot, Symantec said. Read the full article »

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How to Steal an Identity in Seven Easy Steps

By Dawn in Crime, Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, MSI Detective Services, Technology, Theft Investigations at January 12th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

People who have been the victim of identify theft know it can take months or even years to clean up the mess. It is one of the most stressful experiences one can have. The story I am about to share is very real. A close friend of mine was a victim of such a crime and the fact that someone was able to reset that person’s email password was all they needed to gain their personal information. Ironically, this person didn’t use simple passwords, yet it was still done. Still, make your passwords and security questions unique and don’t use the same information for multiple accounts. In fact, make the answers to your questions incorrect – just random information that isn’t even true. You may have to write down this information since all of us have so many accounts – making it impossible to remember everything. But, this minor inconvenience sure beats the major nightmare you will live if your identity is even stolen.

Herbert Thompson seems like just another smart academic software developer who loves formulas and geeking out. But he’s also stolen the identities of several casual acquaintances. In fact, in one case he gained access to a bank account in seven shockingly simple steps. He didn’t use any programming tricks, just a little sleuth work.

As part of an experiment and with the permission of some people he barely knew, Thompson stole identities to show the public how easy it is to get access to personal data and banking information. He proved it only requires some simple surfing for freely available personal data. What the following steps show is how vulnerable we all are to security breach. Read the full article »

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Facebook Hit With Computer Worm – Compromises 45,000 Accounts

By Dawn in Debugging - Electronic Countermeasures, Electronic Fraud, Electronic Theft, Hacking, Technology at January 10th, 2012 | No comments

 

 

 

 

 

A computer worm has stolen login credentials and compromised more than 45,000 Facebook accounts, Israeli security firm Seculert said.

Facebook has issued a statement saying most of the login credentials were outdated but it was informing the affected users.

The worm, known as Ramnit, was first detected in April 2010, and is described as malware that infects Windows executable and HTML files, stealing information like stored credentials and browser cookies, Seculert said in a blog post.

A July 2011 report from security firm Symantec said Ramnit was responsible for 17.3 percent of all new malicious software infections, PC Magazine reported Thursday.

Ramnit targeted financial institutions when it first appeared. It is now going after Facebook and its 800 million users, especially in Europe.

About 69 percent of the 45,000 compromised login details were from Facebook users in Britain, followed by 27 percent in France and 4 percent elsewhere.

“We suspect that the attackers behind Ramnit are using the stolen credentials to log-in to victim’s Facebook accounts and to transmit malicious links to their friends, thereby magnifying the malware’s spread even further,” Seculert said.

In a statement released by Facebook, one word of caution to protect yourself is to never click on strange links and report any suspicious activity you encounter on Facebook.

Read Story@ upi

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