Tech Companies Team Up to Combat Email Scams

 

NEW YORK (AP) – Google (GOOG), Facebook and other big tech companies are jointly designing a system for combating email scams known as phishing.

Such scams try to trick people into giving away passwords and other personal information by sending emails that look as if they come from a legitimate bank, retailer or other business. When Bank of America (BAC) customers see emails that appear to come from the bank, they might click on a link that takes them to a fake site mimicking the real Bank of America’s. There, they might enter personal details, which scam artists can capture and use for fraud.

To combat that, 15 major technology and financial companies have formed an organization to design a system for authenticating emails from legitimate senders and weeding out fakes. The new system is called DMARC – short for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance.

DMARC builds upon existing techniques used to combat spam. Those techniques are designed to verify that an email actually came from the sender in question. The problem is there are multiple approaches for doing that and no standard way of dealing with emails believed to be fake.

The new system addresses that by asking email senders and the companies that provide email services to share information about the email messages they send and receive. In addition to authenticating their legitimate emails using the existing systems, companies can receive alerts from email providers every time their domain name is used in a fake message. They can then ask the email providers to move such messages to spam folder or block them outright.

According to Google, about 15 percent of non-spam messages in Gmail come from domains that are protected by DMARC. This means Gmail users “don’t need to worry about spoofed messages from these senders,” Adam Dawes, a product manager at Google, said in a blog post.

“With DMARC, large email senders can ensure that the email they send is being recognized by mail providers like Gmail as legitimate, as well as set policies so that mail providers can reject messages that try to spoof the senders’ addresses,” Dawes wrote.

Work on DMARC started about 18 months ago. Beginning Monday, other companies can sign up with the organization, whether they send emails or provide email services. For email users, the group hopes DMARC will mean fewer fraudulent messages and scams reaching their inbox.

The group’s founders are email providers Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL (AOL) and Google; financial service providers Bank of America, Fidelity Investments and eBay (EBAY)’s PayPal; online service companies Facebook, LinkedIn (LNKD) and American Greetings Corp. (AM) and security companies Agari, Cloudmark, eCert, Return Path and the Trusted Domain Project.

Google uses it already, both in its email sender and email provider capacities. The heft of the companies that have already signed on to the project certainly helps, and its founders are hoping it will be more broadly adopted to become an industry standard.

 

 

Source From: (http://www.dailyfinance.com)

 

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Tech Mate – scams and spam

Dealing with spam and avoiding common internet scams

In normal life, if someone wants to scam you, they have to do it one on one.

But online scammers and spammers write programs to do it for them, then plug in a million email addresses and let it go to work. If only one in ten-thousand people fall for it, that’s still a hundred victims.

But once you can spot a scam, you can keep yourself safe.

Some scams happen at websites, but many come to you as spam – that is, junk email.

Spam is generally trying to sell you something: often pornography or pharmaceuticals that turn you into a towel rail.

I’ll talk about spam generally in a moment, but first, let’s look at the most common internet scams.

Probably the most common one is the bank email scam.

Dear Customer, the ABC Bank needs to confirm your account number and password. Please send it by return email so we can update your records, or use the attached link.

This email looks official. And so does the attached website. But if you do what it says, the scammer will have all your money about a minute later.

Your bank will NEVER send such an email. So just delete it.

Next is the Nigerian 419 scam.

Dear Sir, you have been recommended to me as a person of good character. I am Tuwumbi, Deposed Prince of Nigeria. My father the former King hid nine million American dollars of oil money in a secret account, and I need your help to unlock my inheritance.

Eventually he’ll ask for a bank account number, so he can transfer the money through it, giving you ten per cent as his agent.

But what will really happen, is he’ll take a hundred per cent of what you’ve got.

People do fall for this. Some even agree to meet the Prince overseas, when they’re promptly kidnapped.

Again, hit delete.

Modem jacking is an issue for people on dial-up. In order to access some website, you’ll be asked install a little piece of software. When you do, it hangs up the modem and dials a premium-rate phone number, where you’re charged many dollars a minute for the privilege of remaining online.

The worst part is, you have no idea this has happened, so you can spend hours on the internet and never realise the bill you’re running up.

So don’t agree to installing software just to see a website.

Buying things online is another place to be scammed. I don’t want to scare you off it all together, as online shopping can be brilliant, but you should only deal with reputable companies.

For example, thousands of people were scammed in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, by a very clever website that sold fake tickets to Olympic events.BeijingTicketing.com looked like the real thing, but was actually a real fake. So it’s worth knowing who you’re dealing with before you hand out your money.

Some other things that you should watch out forinclude:
– ‘Free’ offers that nonetheless require a credit card number.
– Sellers at online auctions who want to do the transaction privately, away from the auction site.
– Offers for mobile phone content like ringtones, because you can be trapped in a very expensive deal without realising it
– Any email wanting identifying details or credit card numbers.
– And beautiful Russian women on Australian dating websites, especially if the emails they send you are entirely generic.

I am looking for serious romance with handsome man like you. I like walks on beach, sexy lingerie and good times. PS, please send money for my sick grandmothers kidney operation.
Just remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

So how do spammers and scammers get hold of your email address? Lots of ways.

– From forms you fill out on dodgy websites.
– From email lists you’ve subscribed to.
– From unscrupulous companies who have your email address for legitimate reasons, but also sell it on.
– And especially from publishing your email address on a website!

For example, if you’re the treasurer of the local bowls club, your email address might be on the club’s website as a contact.

Spammers have programs called bots which search websites, looking for email addresses to add to their lists.

And once you’re on a list, your address will be sold and resold between spam companies.

Most internet service providers have a spam filter, which attempts to weed out the spam without deleting good emails. This is the best way to handle it, because then you don’t have to download it all before deleting it.

If spam’s getting through or good email is getting caught in the net, you can sometimes fiddle with the spam filter settings, to help it work better.

You can also teach some spam filters, by marking the spam emails for them – so in future they’ll reject emails from the same address.

And now there are two newer types of spam to be aware of. One is called zombie spam!

That’s when a program sneaks into your computer and sends spam from you! You need to have good security software to avoid this issue.

And there’s also a thing called spoofing, where the spammer sends someone else an email with your address on it, making you look like the spammer! Don’t panic, just ignore it and it should stop.

The rules for dealing with all spam are simple:

– Avoid giving out your address out in the ways I’ve mentioned.
– NEVER reply to spam, it just confirms that your address works. Don’t even use the unsubscribe button.
– Don’t buy the stuff they’re selling.
– And delete it without opening it. If you hold the shift button while pressing delete, it skips sending it to your deleted folder, and just kills it on the spot.

(Go back to the Tech Mate index.)

 

Source From: (http://www.abc.net.au)

 

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CyberSecurity Malaysia: Beware, your cyberfling could turn into a blackmail scam

 

BEWARE: CyberSecurity Malaysia today alerted the public to the dangers of ‘cyberflirts’, saying it is linked to a rising trend in cyber blackmail scams where victims are being targeted on social networking sites. — ©AFP/Relaxnews 2014

KUALA LUMPUR: National cybersecurity specialist agency CyberSecurity Malaysia today alerted the public to the dangers of ‘cyberflirts’, saying it is linked to a rising trend in cyber blackmail scams.

Victims are targeted via social networking sites such as Facebook, Tagged and online video chat services such as Skype, with the perpetrators believed to be foreign nationals creating a scam hub in various locations including Malaysia.

As the victims have thus far been mainly teenage boys and middle aged men, the culprits are suspected to be working with female accomplices.

An analysis of the 80 or so reported incidents thus far revealed the modus operandi of a typical cyber blackmail scam: The perpetrator would usually create a profile on a social networking site portraying him or herself as a beautiful Asian woman, where “she” would befriend and flirt with potential victims, and subsequently invite them to intimate video chats with her using Skype.

Unbeknownst to the victims however, “she” would then secretly record the victims during the video chats and blackmail them into remitting sums of money ranging from RM500 to RM5,000 via Western Union or a third party bank account. Failure to do so would result in the video footage being circulated on the Internet.

“Only four incidents of cyber blackmail scams were reported to our Cyber999 Help Centre in 2012, but by mid 2013 we saw an upward trend,” said Dr Amirudin Abdul Wahab, chief executive officer of CyberSecurity Malaysia.

He added that by the end of 2013 that number had increased exponentially to 73 cases, leading CyberSecurity Malaysia to believe that there could be many more unreported incidents.

“Malaysians are advised to be extra careful and not to entertain online seductions from women whom they got to know only in social media, but have never really known in person,” stressed Dr Amirudin.

What to do if you are a victim of such a scam:

• Stop communicating with the perpetrator. Ignore all calls, SMSes or messages from the perpetrator.
• Remove the perpetrator from all your social media friends or contact lists, or add her to your list of ‘blocked’ contacts.
• Make all your social networking accounts private so the perpetrator will not be able to reach you or your friends.
• Keep all relevant data such as chat logs, screenshots, and e-mail messages as evidence for reporting and prosecution purposes.
• Never pay the scammers as it may further propagate the scam.
• Lodge a police report at a nearby police station together with evidence for further investigations.

 

CyberSecurity also added general words of advice to Internet users:

• Be aware that anything you do on the Internet, including video and voice calls, can be recorded and manipulated for malicious purposes.
• Adhere to best practices, and religious or social ethics, when on social networking sites and online chat forums.
• Be very cautious who you befriend, and do not feel obligated to fulfill all requests from other users while online.
• Be alert and suspicious of unusual activities on the Net and immediately report it to relevant authorities.
• As a preventive measure, configure your Skype account to restrict communications with only your existing contact list by doing the following: Go to > Tools > Options > Privacy > Only Allow IMs, Calls etc from People on my Contact List > SAVE.
• Always make sure your software and systems are up-to-date, and that you are using up-to-date security software.
• Never use your webcam to video call someone you do not know.

 

Source from: (http://www.thestar.com.my)

 

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SanDisk announces new CloudSpeed SSDs for enterprise

 

 

SanDisk has announced four new SSDs which are targeted at the enterprise world, designed to be able to cope with the intensive workloads experienced in data centres and cloud computing.

The four new 19nm-based models are the CloudSpeed Extreme, CloudSpeed Ultra, CloudSpeed Ascend and CloudSpeed Eco, all of which are designed for reliability and longevity. SanDisk claims that with one of these models – the Extreme – it’s the first supplier to provide 10 full DWPD (drive writes per day) on 19nm enterprise SSDs.

The CloudSpeed Extreme is a high endurance solid-state drive delivering the aforementioned 10 full DWPD, and 75K/25K IOPS of random read/write performance respectively. It comes in 100GB through 800GB capacities, and can cope with 14.6 Petabytes Written (PBW) over its lifespan.

The CloudSpeed Ultra is the high performance offering, boasting 3 full DWPD, 80K/25K random read/write IOPS, and 4.4 PBW. It starts at 200GB, moving up to 800GB.

The CloudSpeed Ascend is designed for read-intensive applications such as file servers, offering 1 full DWPD, 80K/15K random read/write IOPS, and supporting up to 1.8 PBW. It’s available in 240GB through 960GB capacities.

Finally, the CloudSpeed Eco is the entry-level SSD with 1 full DWPD, 80K/15K in terms of read/write IOPS, and 1 PBW, with capacities the same as the Ascend.

All the drives have a five year warranty, save for the Eco which offers three years.

Pricing isn’t yet confirmed, but competitive prices are promised when these SSDs hit, which is expected to be next month.

John Scaramuzzo, General Manager of Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk, commented: “Organisations in every industry are turning to SSDs to meet the challenges faced by growing volumes of data. However, finding a solution that meets the performance and cost needs of your individual environment can be difficult. The CloudSpeed SATA SSD product family was designed to meet the needs of applications across the read-write spectrum, meaning organisations and server designers no longer need to make trade-offs between system performance and cost.”

 

Source From: ( http://www.itproportal.com)

 

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Thousands falling for Microsoft tech support scam; Caller offers to remove virus by remote access

 

 

Computer security firms are warning about a Microsoft tech support scam that now appears to be exploding nationwide.

This cold-calling scam first surfaced a couple of years ago. But Microsoft says people are now falling victim to it every day, as it can be very convincing.

How The Scam Works

Jim Eyster has had a lot of problems with his laptop, including lockups and blue screens.

So he was relieved when the phone rang and the caller said he was with Microsoft Tech Support.

“He said ‘I’m from Microsoft and we have noticed that you have had a lot of viruses,'” Eyster said.

The caller explained that Microsoft, during a routine scan of his system, found problems that were slowing it down.

“I was gullible,” Eyster said. “He said he could show me where the viruses were and so I let him take control of the mouse.”

Eyster said the man directed him to a webpage that, once he logged on, allowed the caller to take control of his computer.

The man then called up an internal page on the laptop that appeared to show it overrun with viruses. It showed hundreds of “errors” and “critical alerts.” Eyster was alarmed.

“He said he could remove the viruses for a hundred dollars, on a credit card,” Eyster said.

But something about it made Eyster suspicious at that point and good thing: It was all a scam.

So What’s In Your Computer?

The errors they show you are not viruses at all.

“They are calling about Windows errors,” Tina Wolff said. “But everybody has Windows errors. So immediately you are listening.”

Wolff, a computer technician, runs a repair shop and has seen many people fall for the ruse. She said one of her customers paid hundreds of dollars to remove the nonexistent viruses.

“He spent an hour on the phone and at the end of the hour they told him they were going to charge him $300,” Wolff said. Then she had to remove the “malware” that the caller installed.

It’s Not Microsoft

Remember: Microsoft will never call you unsolicited.

The company says this is a foreign scam to collect credit card numbers and install malware.

But if you have PC problems, like Eyster did, it’s so convincing.

I believed it, and I bit like a fish,” he said.

Bottom line: If Microsoft calls you, hang up. That way, you don’t waste your money.
 

Source from: (http://www.newsnet5.com)

 

 

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