Don't be caught - Phishing Discussion

TheLydons

To put in lay mans terms (non-techie speak) - going on the internet without the appropriate firewalls/anti-viral software/regular password changes etc. is a bit like

driving a car without insurance or for non-drivers, having unprotected sex

a. you might do it once and it was ok
b. you might do it everyday and it was ok
c. you might think you're the safest driver to have ever driven a car
d. you might do it once and kill a third party

Every computer in the world is unique, your personal data and identity is unique. Don't pass the buck onto someone else about the responsibility/protection of your information, it is your information and it is up to you to protect it.

Hackers/Scammers/(insert your own ....) rely on complacency, ignorance, laziness - just because your pc is in your home and you think that it is safe - once you go online, you are putting yourself at risk. Take the proper precautions as outlined in the posts above and make it harder for those who want to phish.

Noobie_2

Hard to disagree with you - lack of money isn't a credible reason on this, as there are many good (or even very good) products available for FREE which will make time spent on the internet much safer, e.g:

Anti-Virus - AVG version 7, by Grisoft - FREE
Firewall - ZoneAlarm or Kerio (or even XP SP2 f.w.) - FREE
Anti-adware - Ad-Aware by Lavasoft - FREE
Anti-Spyware - Spybot Search & Destroy - FREE

And if you're thinking about buying an anti-spyware product - don't - at least, not until you've checked out the 'rogues' (i.e. don't buy an 'anti-spyware' product only to find it is spyware) here:

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Noobie_2

"If you can sleep at night in the new wireless world, you don't understand the significance of the problem."

Around half of Britain's homes and offices with wireless networks have failed to put in the most basic protection from hackers, according to Karl Feilder, a security adviser.

Some families are so vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping that anyone parked in the street could read every e-mail sent or received.

Using a laptop and free software downloaded from the internet, a snooper can also get access to confidential passwords, browse through personal documents and dump viruses on the system.


Clips from an article re wireless networks in the Telegraph on-line, 03/12/04, full article here:

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=YLCWHH2PV1QI1QFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/12/03/nnet03.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/12/03/ixhome.html

robnye

"If you can sleep at night in the new wireless world, you don't understand the significance of the problem."

Around half of Britain's homes and offices with wireless networks have failed to put in the most basic protection from hackers, according to Karl Feilder, a security adviser.

Some families are so vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping that anyone parked in the street could read every e-mail sent or received.

Using a laptop and free software downloaded from the internet, a snooper can also get access to confidential passwords, browse through personal documents and dump viruses on the system.


Clips from an article re wireless networks in the Telegraph on-line, 03/12/04, full article here:

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=YLCWHH2PV1QI1QFIQMGSM54AVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/12/03/nnet03.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/12/03/ixhome.html

the problem with the above story is that it doesnt mention what needs to be done to secure your wireless pcs.......  ???

which the story more of a scare mongerer

Noobie_2

Hopefully it will bring the problem to the attention of people who are unaware of it (as high as 50%?) so they will seek out ways to protect themselves, and one good place to start looking is.....

Noobie_2

Clips from a recent report on tests carried out re on-line security:

…an unprotected PC can get hijacked within minutes of accessing the Internet.

From Sept. 10 to Sept. 25, online intruders made 305,922 attempts to break into six (test) computers connected to the Internet.

Break-in attempts began immediately and continued at a constant and high level: an average of 341 per hour against the Windows XP machine with no firewall or recent security patches.

By contrast, there were fewer than four attacks per hour against the Windows XP updated with a basic firewall and recent patches (Service Pack 2), the Linspire with basic firewall and the Windows XP with ZoneAlarm firewall.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-29-honeypot_x.htm

(thanks to monomer for showing me the link)

TheLydons

A lot of the online threats that exist nowadays are reliant on IP addresses, rather than email addresses.

If the IP address of your PC comes up as non-firewalled, whoopee - you have set yourself up as a legit target for all sorts of goodies eg.

remote !!!!!! hosting
keylogging
remote file storage

Always remember, no matter how "good" or "technical" you are, there is always someone out there who is a little shadier than you, has a little more tech knowledge than you, this is not "personal", your pc has just come up as easy pickings - PLEASE DO NOT MAKE IT SO.

peter_the_piper

The best investment I made was to get a wireless router with firewall, since getting this the number of attempted intrusions dropped from 30 a day to zero. I still keep a software firewall/AV and all the restupdated of course. Dosn't stop phishing but allows me to sleep easier, even with a teenager using the computer.

john_glover

I am fairly new to the web and finding I am receiving lots of e-mails of people trying to sell medications such as viagra etc. Is there any way to stop this.

Jack

rafi_2

I am fairly new to this too. I am getting at least one a day from (allegedly) NatWest, LloydsTSB, Halifax - and Viagra sales too. I don't use internet banking so never open these emails. I have Norton 2005 anti-virus etc, is there any way I can set it to block these particular emails or when the senders know they are being blocked do they simply bombard you from supposedly different addresses?

Any help would be appreciated.