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Cybercrime
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aliEnRIK
Posts: 17,741 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Ive been reading a book on crime in the UK (one of 2 I have by the same author, and they make incredibly interesting reading)
His section on cybercrime opened my eyes a little to things that have happened under my nose
For example -
Many people here will use social networking. So a 'friend' might post on their wall for all thier 'friends' to take part in the pornstar name game. The name of their first pet and their mothers maiden name
I genuinely thought nothing of this until I read the reason it exists at all - many people use their mothers maiden name as a security question for online banking!
This friend isnt a friend at all.....
The scariest one ive just read is one that could be happening a lot, we just dont know it -
Many of us do online banking etc. Weve all seen spam emails, but things are getting very sophisticated.
In example -
You log in and use paypal as normal. Nothing seems 'out of the ordinary' at all
But whats really happened is that a 'script' has infected you, let you goto paypal as normal, but your 'piggybacked' as you use paypal. Someone elsewhere is also logged in using your details to do with has he or she pleases
Makes me wonder if this is why I seem to be seeing more and more threads along the lines of 'my paypals been hacked'!
His section on cybercrime opened my eyes a little to things that have happened under my nose
For example -
Many people here will use social networking. So a 'friend' might post on their wall for all thier 'friends' to take part in the pornstar name game. The name of their first pet and their mothers maiden name
I genuinely thought nothing of this until I read the reason it exists at all - many people use their mothers maiden name as a security question for online banking!
This friend isnt a friend at all.....
The scariest one ive just read is one that could be happening a lot, we just dont know it -
Many of us do online banking etc. Weve all seen spam emails, but things are getting very sophisticated.
In example -
You log in and use paypal as normal. Nothing seems 'out of the ordinary' at all
But whats really happened is that a 'script' has infected you, let you goto paypal as normal, but your 'piggybacked' as you use paypal. Someone elsewhere is also logged in using your details to do with has he or she pleases
Makes me wonder if this is why I seem to be seeing more and more threads along the lines of 'my paypals been hacked'!
:idea:
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Comments
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Use a MAC lol................... ;o)))))0
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Ive been reading a book on crime in the UK (one of 2 I have by the same author, and they make incredibly interesting reading)
His section on cybercrime opened my eyes a little to things that have happened under my nose
For example -
Many people here will use social networking. So a 'friend' might post on their wall for all thier 'friends' to take part in the pornstar name game. The name of their first pet and their mothers maiden name
I genuinely thought nothing of this until I read the reason it exists at all - many people use their mothers maiden name as a security question for online banking!
This friend isnt a friend at all.....
They call that a "social engineering attack"... From wikipedia..Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than by breaking in or using technical cracking techniques.[1] While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. In the United Kingdom, social engineering using impersonation (e.g. to gain information over the phone, or to gate-crash an event) is known informally as blagging. In addition to criminal purposes, social engineering has also been employed by debt collectors, skiptracers, private investigators, bounty hunters and tabloid journalists
There are loads of techniques to 'piggyback'.. Cross Site Scripting, Keystroke Logging, Man-in-the-Middle attacks, Packet Sniffing, etc..The scariest one ive just read is one that could be happening a lot, we just dont know it -
Many of us do online banking etc. Weve all seen spam emails, but things are getting very sophisticated.
In example -
You log in and use paypal as normal. Nothing seems 'out of the ordinary' at all
But whats really happened is that a 'script' has infected you, let you goto paypal as normal, but your 'piggybacked' as you use paypal. Someone elsewhere is also logged in using your details to do with has he or she pleases
Makes me wonder if this is why I seem to be seeing more and more threads along the lines of 'my paypals been hacked'!
Who is the author of the books?0 -
Come to think of it... it does seem a bit silly that we've all taken part in the one of those name games. How does all the information get harvested though, unless one friend has their account hijacked?
Name of first pet is often an extra security question as well.0 -
Come to think of it... it does seem a bit silly that we've all taken part in the one of those name games. How does all the information get harvested though, unless one friend has their account hijacked?
Most guys would let a seemingly 'pretty girl' become thier online 'friend' id say
As the cyber hacker put it - anyone with over 100 friends on facebook means at least some of them theyve probably never even met
(I disagree with the 100 figure personally, but the point made is sound):idea:0 -
Most guys would let a seemingly 'pretty girl' become thier online 'friend' id say
Oh um, whatever do you mean... :whistle:
I've only seen the word games come from known friends, but it's easy to put it out of your mind that anyone else can be reading it depending on privacy settings. All they need to do is start the meme with some other people, and collect the results with a quiet account that draws less suspicion.
Facebook's a giant cluster**** for privacy isn't it. Every app or game wants to know everything about you before it'll do anything (if that).0 -
Oh um, whatever do you mean... :whistle:
I've only seen the word games come from known friends, but it's easy to put it out of your mind that anyone else can be reading it depending on privacy settings. All they need to do is start the meme with some other people, and collect the results with a quiet account that draws less suspicion.
Facebook's a giant cluster**** for privacy isn't it. Every app or game wants to know everything about you before it'll do anything (if that).
Ive seen legit friends post the 'word games', purely for fun. But they must have originated somewhere down the line.
I find it incredible how much information people post online at times. Some people need to wake up to online crime.
As for facebook apps - I joined facebook years ago before most people in the uk even knew it existed. When apps started to become cool I added some here and there, but not long after facebook said id been hacked.
Now I dont add any apps beyond what I already have. Especially as apps are far easier to hack into to obtain information from facebook, than hacking facebook itself.:idea:0 -
Check out this thread for a possible example of a man in the middle attack at Nationwide
including a screen capture image.....looks as if they are logged in to a secure site but part of the screen shows something not recognised: - assuming the picture is genuine that is - well it is the interweb.....who knows what people post.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3253708
Incidentially when I'm asked to supply mother's maiden name as part of any security setup I always use another name.0
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