Social Engineering - The Real E-Terrorism?

One evening, during the graveyard shift, an AOL technical support operator took a call from a hacker. During the hour long conversation the hacker mentioned he had a car for sale. The technical support operator expressed an interest so the hacker sent him an e-mail with a photo of the car attached. When the operator opened the attachment it created a back door that opened a connection out of AOL's network, through the firewall, allowing the hacker full access to the entire internal network of AOL with very little effort on the hacker's part.

The above is a true story and it is an excellent example of one of the biggest threats to an organisation's security - social engineering. It has been described as people hacking and it generally means persuading someone inside a company to volunteer information or assistance.

Examples of techniques employed by hackers include:

• Unobtrusively observing over your shoulder as you key in your password or PIN.
• Calling helpdesks with questions or being overly friendly
• Pretending to be someone in authority.

Social engineering attacks can have devastating consequences for the businesses involved. Accounts can be lost, sensitive information can be compromised, competitive advantage can be wiped out and reputation can be destroyed.

By implementing some simple techniques you can reduce the risk of your organisation becoming a victim or, in the event that you are targeted, keep the consequences to a minimum.

• Make sure that all staff, especially non-IT staff, are aware of the risk of social engineering and what to do in the event of such an attack.
• Conduct regular security awareness training so that all staff are kept up to date with security related issues.
• Implement a formal incident reporting mechanism for all security related incidents to ensure there is a rapid response to any breaches.
• Ensure that the company has security policies and procedures in place, that all staff are aware of them and that they are followed.
• Put an information classification system in place to protect sensitive information.

Conduct regular audits, not only on IT systems but also on policies, procedures and personnel so that any potential weaknesses can be addressed as soon as possible.

Dialing Up a Scam: Avoiding the Auto-Dialer Virus

For many, the daily walk to the mailbox evokes mixed feelings: The glee that your favorite monthly magazine – or a friend’s hand-written letter (quite a surprise in the e-mail age) may be waiting is countered by anxiety of how many bills the postman left you.

Now, imagine coming across your phone bill, thicker and heavier than normal. When you open it, instead of “statement stuffers” from the phone company’s marketing department, the bill is dozens of pages long ending in a one-month total of almost $5,400.

A quick glance at the details reveals hundreds of calls to the same 1-900 number. “A mistake,” you insist. After all, you're the only person in the house and you have never called a 900 number before. Actually, this is no mistake. In this true story, the homeowner had fallen victim to one of the oldest computer scams around: the "Auto-Dialer" virus.

How Did This Computer Security Nightmare Begin
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What is an “auto-dialer”? Some time ago, the phone companies came up with a feature that allowed merchants to reach a broader range of customers by allowing consumers to make payments via your phone bill. If you did not have a credit card, you just dialed a 900 number, connected by voice or modem (for Internet sites). Every minute you used the service, you were charged a fee ranging from $1 to $5 or more per minute. At month’s end, the charge appeared on the phone bill. Many services were legit: Consumers called weather, horoscope and gambling services offering this feature. But many merchants sold expensive phone or online adult content.

How Did An Auto-Dialer Get Installed
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But how did $5,400 in charges end up on the person’s phone bill? Although many of these services require the user to physically dial the number or connect to the online site by instructing the modem to dial the number, this can happen without the user’s knowledge. In the above case, the person’s computer was infected with an auto-dialer virus. Somewhere during his Web travels, he connected to a site that popped up a rather confusing message instructing him to "Hit OK" to make the message go away. What this person didn't know was he was agreeing to download,install, and execute an adult content auto-dialer.

Behind the scene, the auto-dialer installed itself, checked for the presence of a modem and dial tone, and then proceeded to dial an overseas 900 number over and over again. Even though the person surfed using an always-on broadband Internet connection, the modem remained so he could send and receive faxes. One problem: When he wasn’t using the modem, it remained plugged into the phone jack. Why should he have unplugged it? It's not like it could hurt anything, right? Wrong.

How To Protect Yourself
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Unfortunately, there is no single solution to avoid these types of malicious acts. A short list of protective measures would include:

1) If you no longer need a modem in your computer, remove it. Or at least disconnect the phone line from the modem;

2) Install anti-virus software such as Trend Micro or Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus. Many are designed to prevent this kind of malicious software, or “Malware.” More importantly, make sure your subscription for new virus patterns is current and configured to automatically download and install updates;

3) Install and regularly run Adware protection solutions such as LavaSoft's Ad-Aware or SpyBot Search & Destroy;

4) And do not, under any circumstances, blindly hit “OK” to pop-ups or similar annoyances without first making sure what you are agreeing to.

This tale is not fiction; in fact, it happens frequently, to businesses and consumers, kids and adults. But even the least savvy among us can thwart such an attack. A neighborhood teenager recently avoided potentially thousands in fees when an auto-dialer was downloaded and installed. How? She had unplugged the modem.

Be Aware of Phishing Scams!

If you use emails actively in your communication, you must have received various messages claiming to be from Ebay, Paypal and a number of banks. A recent email as if from U.S. Bank Corporation that I received contains the subject "U.S. Bank Fraud Verification Process" and in the body of the mail it says "We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your U.S. Bank Internet Banking account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the U.S. Bank network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, we have temporarily limited access to sensitive account features. To restore your account access, please take the following steps to ensure that your account has not been compromised:". It continues with a link to a webpage, which looks very similar to original web page of the bank.

The misleading web site appears authentic with familiar graphics and logos. The wordings are professional right down to the legal disclaimer at the bottom of the page.

If you happened to be holding an account of the claimed bank, followed the instructions of the email and input your account, pin, password, etc. you are doomed. You just have handed over access to your account to a con artist, who, in a matter of days, will drain off all the money available in that account.

This new scam, which is proliferating in a very rapid pace, is called "Phishing". Phishing is a form of identity theft, where a con artist with the help of official looking email containing link to phony web pages capable of harvesting information, tricks an unsuspecting victim into divulging sensitive personal data. Scammers use these data to bilk victims out of their savings.

One of the most common phishing campaigns being waged has targeted users of Web auction giant eBay and its PayPal division with financial services giant Citibank serving as another popular target. However, recently, every major bank has been hit with this scam. Crooks send out huge amounts of emails with an expectation that some of these email address owners may have online access to their accounts at the bank.

The term "Phishing" is a deviation of the word "Fishing". In hackers’ lexicon, in many words, "F" becomes "Ph". The term derives from the fact that scammers use sophisticated bait as they "fish" for users’ personal information.

According to Gartner, a research firm, illegal access to checking accounts gained via phishing has become into the fastest growing type of consumer theft in the United States. Roughly 1.98 million people reported that their checking account was breached in one way or another during the last year and US$ 2.4 billion were defrauded from the victims!

Gartner also estimated that 57 million U.S. Internet users have received phishing emails and 3 percent of them may have fooled into revealing their personal sensitive information.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group has also spotted a dramatic increase in reports of phishing attacks in recent months. Since November, 2003 phishing scams increase by about 110 percent each month. In April alone, the group identified 1125 unique phishing scams, a sharp lift of 178 percent from the previous month.

MessageLabs, a company that watches phishing scams closely, has noted an even more dramatic increase in number of phishing emails. It claims to see phishing messages jump from just 279 in September, 2003 to a staggering 215,643 in March of 2004.

The scammers also started to use more sophisticated technologies in recent months. The latest generation of phishing scammers uses several methods to trick users, including pop-up graphics to mast the true web URL of the phishing site and the installation of Spywares and Trojans on victim’s computer. The perpetrators also take advantage of security bugs in web browsers, in which the URL in the address bar appears to be for one site but is, in fact, a link to a totally different site.

A new Windows worm under the name "Korgo" is able to infiltrate into victim’s system with a key logging Trojan, steal information that the victim input in web forms and secretly transmit to designated server. There are a number of variants of this worm and they are spreading rapidly. However, Microsoft in April came up with a patch to seal this glitch. Many computers without the patch are still vulnerable to this potentially dangerous worm.

A U.S. Treasury report provides consumers with steps to prevent and report phishing scams:

• Do not respond to or open any e-mail that warns that an account is about to be closed. Contact the company directly by phone and inquire of this e-mail.
• Do not submit financial information unless there is a symbol for a locked padlock on the browser's status bar. Also look for the https:// at the beginning of the Web address. If both of these signs are absent, the Web site is not secure.
• Always review your bank statement and credit card statements immediately upon receipt.
• Verify the domestic telephone number listed on the Web site through directory assistance or other reliable sources and call the number. Many phishing attacks have originated outside the U.S. and don't have a domestic number.
• Report suspicious activity or if you have been defrauded to the FTC and the FBI.
• Phishing e-mails can be forwarded to uce@ftc.gov. Complaints can be filed at www.ftc.gov. Phishing attacks can also be reported to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.ifccfbi.gov.

Other cautionary measures you should take in order to protect yourself are:

• Since most of the phishing emails come through spam, get a spam filter and install on your computer.
• If you suspect a phishing attempt, report immediately to the bank. Every bank web site has a link or a toll-free number to report scams. Don't be ashamed if you were tricked into divulging account information. If you report it immediately, your account will be protected until you receive a new PIN.
• Change your password and PINs regularly. Banks advise that you use separate PINs and passwords for different accounts, that way if one gets compromised, your entire financial life won’t be revealed. - If you are a frequent user of EBay, download its Web browser toolbar, a small program that runs with a user's Web browser. It flashes red when the user visits a possible spoof site. The toolbar uses a database of spoof site URLs, submitted by customers and is updated quite often.
• Check your computer frequently for possible Trojan virus.

Internet Security Basics 101

The explosive growth of the Internet has meant that thousands of people are today experiencing the joys of being online for the first time. With growth there always comes pain. Be it your growing pains as a child or the growth and development of this part of our culture called the Internet.

Firstly we need to quickly explain what the Internet is and where it came from. The Internet is the offspring of a military project called Arpanet. Arpanet was designed to provide reliable communication during global nuclear war. A vast network of interconnected computers was set up all over the world to allow the various branches of US and NATO forces to communicate with each other.

Nuclear war never came (thankfully) and the world was left with a massive network of computers all connected together with nothing to do. Colleges and universities started to use these computers for sharing research internationally. From there it grew and spread outside colleges to local homes and businesses. The World Wide Web was born and its father was a guy called Tim Berners Lee.

When you're connected to the Internet you're sharing a vast network with hundreds of millions of other users. This shared network provides resources that 15 years ago were never thought possible. Unfortunately when something is shared its open to abuse. On the Internet this abuse comes from hackers and virus creators. Their sole intent is to cause chaos and/or harm to your computer system and millions of other computer systems all over the world.

How do you combat this? You need an Internet security system. This might sound complicated but your Internet security system will be quite straigtforward being comprised of just 2 - 3 Internet security products. We'll look at each of these products in more detail now:

AntiVirus Software

The first and most critical element of your Internet security system is antivirus software. If you don't have up-to-date antivirus software on your PC you're asking for trouble. 300 new viruses appear each month and if you're not constantly protecting your system against this threat your computer will become infected with at least one virus - it's only a matter of time.

Antivirus software scans your PC for signatures of a virus. A virus signature is the unique part of that virus. It can be a a file name, how the virus behaves or the size of the virus file itself. Good antivirus software will find viruses that haven't yet infected your PC and eliminate the ones that have.

Antivirus software can only protect your computer from viruses trying to infect it via email, CD-Rom, floppy disk, Word documents or other types of computer files. Antivirus software alone will not keep your computer 100% safe. You also need to use firewall software.

Firewall Software

The use of firewall software by home computer users is a relatively new occurence. All Internet connections are a two way process. Data must be sent and received by your computer. This data is sent through something called ports. These are not physical things rather aspects of the way your computer communicates online.

Firewall software watches these ports to make sure that only safe communication is happening between your computer and other computers online. If it sees something dangerous happening it blocks that port on your computer to make sure your computer stays safe from the person who is trying to hack into your system.

An easier way to understand a firewall would be to picture your computer as an apartment complex. At the front door of this complex there is a security guard. Every person who enters the complex must pass this security guard. If the security guard recognizes the person entering as a resident he allows them to pass without saying anything. If, however, the person entering the complex is unknown to him then he will stop that person and ask for identification. If they have no business being at the apartment complex he escorts them from the building.

If you are not currently using firewall software your computer will get hacked into - that's a guarantee.

PopUp Blocker

You can get a good popup blocker at no cost. An easy way to do this is to install either the Google or Yahoo toolbar. Both of these come with popup blockers built in. Popups are not necessarily dangerous but are a nuisance and using either of these toolbars will make your life that bit easier.

A simple rule for practicing online security is: "If in doubt then don't". If you don't recognize the file, the email address, the website or if your gut feeling says "no" then don't click that button.

Data Recovery and Causes of Data Loss

Although processing and storing data on a computer is efficient, cheaper and easier, proper care should be taken to protect it from damage. For example, imagine a financial institution having credit and debit information of all the customers stored on a computer. If the company does not have any copy of these data elsewhere and the computer breaks down, there would be no way they could track down these information details. As a result, there is a risk of not knowing who are the creditors and debtors and the company stands a chance of going bankrupt.

Causes of data loss

The information on a computer is stored on hard drive. Data loss on a hard drive could happen due to a variety of reasons and some of them are as follows:

• Virus on the computer


• Formatting of the hard drive


• Physical damages to the drive


• Hard drive head crash


• User might have inadvertently deleted the data on the drive


• Power failure before the user could save the file

The data could also be stored on removable media such as CD, floppy or pen drive. The data on these devices could also be lost due to some of the above reasons. The loss of crucial data necessitated the need for a means to recover them and this led to the development of various techniques to retrieve the data.

Data Recovery: The Process Involved

As the name implies, data recovery is the process of retrieving the data from a crashed hard drive or storage device. There are various methods that can be employed for data recovery depending upon the type and severity of data loss. For example, when data on a hard drive is lost due to software corruption by virus, data recovery is usually done through parallel reinstallation. In this process, a fresh copy of the operating system is installed without deleting the existing one. Since the previous copy of operating system has crashed, the data stored in the hard drive is accessed and retrieved through the new copy of operating system.

People generally assume that data recovery is not possible in a lot of cases such as data loss due to power failure or formatting of hard drive. However, in most of these cases, data can be retrieved with the assistance of a data recovery expert. There is also data recovery software available in the market that helps you with the process even without the assistance of an expert.

Service Offerings

There are various companies providing data recovery services in the market. However, it is important to choose a reliable data recovery company. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing your data forever or end up paying more than what it is worth.

Fields Data Recovery has been in this industry since 1992 and has its presence in a lot of countries around the globe. Excellent recovery rate and high profile clients such as IBM, Reuters, Warner Brothers Entertainment, etc. stand as a symbol of credible service offered by them. They provide quality service in recovering data from hard drive and all types of removable media.

Precautionary Measures

Instead of losing your important data and then worrying about retrieving it, you could try to prevent the problem even before it strikes. Here are some of the useful tips to avoid data loss:

1. Always have a back up of your important data. This way even if you lose the data on the hard drive you can use the copy of it stored on the CD.
2. While travelling with your laptop or moving your desktop, be careful to avoid jerks that could disturb the hard drive head and cause data loss.
3. Virus mostly spreads through e-mail attachments and might destroy the data on your computer. So avoid opening e-mail attachments from strangers.
4. Have an updated copy of anti-virus software on your computer that can prevent virus attack.

The need for a Vista Registry Cleaner

Computer users worldwide are feeling threatened by the increased number of viruses and registry errors. The Internet is the main cause of all that, being full of harmful programs and websites. The only way to run your computer at its entire capacity and avoid possible problems is to install protection shields with the latest anti-virus software and a Vista Registry Cleaner.

Windows Vista is one of the supported platforms for one of the best registry cleaners out there, meaning PC-Cleaner. This program was designed by IT specialists, hoping to eliminate registry errors and corrupted entries. The final results of a registry loaded with plenty of unnecessary entries are terrible. First of all, your computer starts to proceed more slowly then you end up with complete failure and data loss.

By doing a complete scanning, the Vista Registry Cleaner is able to find all the troubles that your computer experiences in terms of Windows Registry. This being the part of the PC where info is stored, it is kind of vital to keep it running in good shape and not load it with unneeded files. The scanning is accurate and complete, locating all bugs and helping you system to work faster.

The problems that a Vista Registry Cleaner such as PC-Cleaner is trained to annihilate are various. You can recover the command of your computer after it eliminates difficulties with: add/remove programs, application paths, help and resources plus startup programs. This type of Vista Registry cleaner can not only help you with the ones mentioned above but also with many others among are included shared dlls, shared folders and windows fonts.

The Windows Registry is a large database of information that must be handled with care. Regrettably, many of the registry errors encountered are due to bad programs and low-quality websites. The registry repair application can really be of help in case of error messages such as iexplore and system 32, not to mention the regular freezes you computer might experience.

If you are interested in registry repair, then you should know that PC-Cleaner is the best possible choice. It is a program that analyzes every single piece of your computer and comes up with a comprehensive list of erorrs, being ready to take care of them. The troubles that affect the Windows Registry may be severe and only get worse with time. Start taking care of your computer and choose the registry repair application offered by PC-Cleaner; it is powerful and simple to implement.

The scanning can be done manually or you have some custom options to choose from. Either way, by using PC-Cleaner you can be sure that your computer will work without any problems and to further prevent any of them, you can schedule a regular scanning. The registry repair is perfect to restore your system and get rid of those despicable registry entries. The most important thing is to purchase a registred copy in order to be able to benefit from the program at its full capacity.

There are certain features recommended to be used only by advanced users. They include the backup function in order to produce a copy of the previous registry. The custom scan and shortcut settings are also part of these features along with file associations and uninstaller. One can certainly benefit from such a program, made especially to handle registry entries and wipe out any possible errors.

Using a genuine Vista Registry Cleaner can bring you lots of advantages and in the long run extend the lifespan of your computer. Choose an application that is safe to use and implement, one that protects your Windows Registry and aids your computer to perform well, if not impeccable.

Sensors and How They are Used

A sensor is a device that responds to an input quantity by generating a functionally related output usually in the form of an electrical or optical sight. There are many different types of sensors: position sensors, load sensors, tilt sensors, and vibration sensors to name a few, and they are present in multiple fields that warrant the technology.

In the past twenty years there has been tremendous growth in the number of products and services that utilize information acquired by monitoring and quantifying different types of sensors. Sensors have been produced to match the need of these afore mentioned services, and is referred to as sensor technology. Sensor technology encompasses a broad range of services including those applicable in the environment, medicine, commerce, and industry.

Organizations of the relevant areas are realizing the implications of encouraging the growth of sensor technology. Most sensors are electrical or electronic, though other types exist. Sensors are used in everyday life with applications in areas such as automobiles, machines, medicine, and robotics.

Sensor Networks
Sensors usually work in a network, called sensor networks. A sensor network is a group of specialized transducers with a communications infrastructure intended to monitor and record conditions at varying locations. Areas commonly monitored include temperature, humidity, pressure, wind direction and speed, illumination intensity, vibration intensity, sound intensity, power-line voltage, chemical concentrations, pollutant levels, and vital body functions. This intelligent is achieved by using solely or a combination of the tilt, load, vibration, and position sensors mentioned in the introduction.

A sensor network can be broken down further into multiple detection stations called ‘sensor nodes.’ Each sensor node is minute, lightweight, and portable. Each node is equipped with a transducer, microcomputer, transceiver, and power source. The transducer generates electrical signals based on sensed physical effects. The microcomputer both processes and stores the sensor output. The transceiver (being hard-wired or wireless) receives commands from a centralized computer and transmits data back to the computer. The power for each sensor node is derived from the electric utility or from a battery.

Applications

Sensors and Sensor Networks can be applied to:

- Industrial automation
- Automated and Smart homes
- Video surveillance
- Traffic monitoring
- Medical device monitoring
- Monitoring of weather events
- Air traffic control
- Robot control

Types

Sensors are classified according to the type of energy transfer they detect:

- Thermal
- Electromagnetic
- Mechanical
- Chemical
- Optical and radiation
- Acoustic
- Motion
- Orientation
- Distance

Internet Privacy and Online Privacy Tools

Looking at the different types of identity hijacking that are reported all of the world on a daily basis and considering that the information these perpetrators use come directly from the victims, you will be glad to know that there is an easy way to make your life a safer place and to keep your information and your family’s information safe. Internet eraser software is a new state of the art security system for your PC. With the help of internet eraser software, now protecting your private information on you hard drive just became a whole lot easier and more effective. Don’t take the risk of not knowing where your personal information is being used, take control of your life and keep your private information where it belongs, with you and private.

Think of internet eraser software as your car alarm. Your car alarm works to let everyone around know that your car is being broken into, so someone can do something about it. In that way internet eraser software works as a prevention system, so you will never have to live in fear of identity hijacking. Some of these internet eraser software tools comes with a built in shredder system, so you can get rid of those highly confidential documents, when traditional deleting is just not good enough. When you delete something in the traditional manner your hard drive merely covers up that document with other information, and it is still retrievable with certain software. For this reason look for an internet eraser software with the built in shredder, so you can rest assured that all your important documents are well taken care of when you are done with them.

Keep in mind that, good internet eraser software comes with cookie managers and stealth mode (so it can protect you while you work and you will not need to do anything to be safe), it also comes with scheduling and emergency keys set up (so you can do all the deleting you need in less time with more effectiveness). Do your banking, surfing, studying and everything else you do in the comfort of your own home the way it was meant to be, safe and private. So don’t delay or you will become a victim of those identity hijackers that are popping up all over the world, install internet eraser software on your PC and keep your family’s information safe. You have everything to lose if you do not act now.

Clear Yahoo History and Clear Google History Tools

Whether you use your PC as a personal hub for online chatting, gaming, or writing your daily journal or whether you use your PC as a professional workstation for internet banking, online meetings with clients, daily scheduling and diary planning, your information is at risk. Whatever you use your PC for, you will, at least once a day, use your personal information, like your social security number, date of birth, home address and the like. If you are connected to the internet, hackers from all around the world have access to your personal files and information. Stop hackers in their tracks and install internet eraser software.

It is one thing for a family member to go through your personal files without your permission, but it is an entirely different thing when someone you do not know takes over you life with that same information. Identity hijacking is a growing business these days, and it is good for everyone to know that a huge percent of the information that these hijackers use come from the victims own personal computer. It is in your best interest to get and install good internet eraser software on your PC. This will make a huge difference in your life and will keep your information and the information of your family members safe and private, like it was meant to be.

Internet eraser software is a new state of the art security system for your PC. It works without you even knowing, it is protecting you every second of the day, while you are working on your computer. Whenever you type a word or letter on your keyboard your computer saves the information into a hidden directory. A directory that might be hidden to you, but if you know what you are looking for, like those hackers out there, you will find anything. Your information is not safe on your hard drive, and internet eraser software knows that. This is why it works covert, deleting all your personal information, which you don’t save on your hard drive, while you are working.

A lot of the newer internet eraser software comes with built in shredder device, so you can choose to totally destroy highly confidential records if you so wish. The shredder device was added to the internet eraser software because deleting is just not good enough, as your hard drive stores information under other information, which makes it retrievable to outside influences. You also get features like the cookie manager, stealth mode, scheduling and hot keys, so you can do everything you need to do with one click of a button. Start protecting your family today and install this state of the art software.