The Internet Threat Landscape

PM Gordon Brown’s Make Up Secrets Revealed

According to reports from The Sun, “Slap on the face for PM”, GORDON Brown was red-faced again last night after his MAKE-UP tips were left in a taxi by a bungling aide. The make up tips came in among a pile of sensitive documents (which would be disastrous in the hands of terrorists).

Phishing disguised as Customer Feedback Form

Though this happened in the US, it is a lesson that we can draw upon and be wary of the available phishing techniques. This is one scam that might get away unnoticed by the victims as the page is cleverly designed and forwards the user to the legitimate website after mining the necessary information.

32 Vaccines against Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu – Or is it ?

With Influenza A (H1N1) swine flu on-going ravages around the world, recent spam mail subject are usually related to this, and many offering “drugs” or “vaccines” against it. Mail contents usually points to online pharmacy offering sexual enhancement products. Examples include:

Post Mothers’ Day Special – For a peace of Mind “ Say No to Cybercrime”

As a special tribute to all mothers to enjoy a peace of mind, here are a few tips against potential cyber threats:

1. Avoid launching bank’s website through email or online search engines.

2. Add the genuine bank’s web URL to “Favorites” in your browser for future usage.

3. Recently, there are viruses capable of URL hijacking, which redirect victims to another fake IP address after they key in the real IP address. Suggestion is to double check by right clicking on the site content and check on the URL to verify its authenticity.

Adopt a Cat or a “Rat” -- Latest Typosquatting case in Singapore

There has been a reported case of a lady who was cheated of her money when she attempted to adopt a kitten from the website (www.spca.com.sg) – WRONG URL !!!

The original SPCA website address is actually www.spca.org.sg

This is the latest reported case of typosquatting (which is a type of cybersquatting) making a profit from unaware internet users.

Cybersquatting generally refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses.

Hackers Spammers & Flu Fears

Cyber criminals are exploiting Internet users’ worry about the Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak, previously known as Swine Flu, seizing the change to infect computers as well as peddle dodgy pills and medication. Malware writers are joining spammers in leveraging the swine flu to reach unsuspecting computer users.

According to a report from The Sun, computer hackers are sending out spam emails with the subject, "Madonna caught swine flu!" so you'll click and infect your computer with a virus. Other fake emails say it's Salma Hayek who is infected, or that an epidemic has hit Hollywood.

This appears to be yet another attempt by hackers to exploit current events as lures to distribute their malware.

Articles masked as outbreak updates or helpful personal hygiene tips are spread through spam mails, hoping some will open and forward to their friends. Embedded within these files are computer viruses that infect a user’s computer custom made to take over the computer or stealing user’s information. Many spam messages also urge users to protect themselves to buy flu medication from their online pharmacies. Those who fall for spam online drug advertisements risk having their credit card information stolen or pay for fake pills, or not having any delivered after payment.

Some of the most common subject lines that consumers should be aware of include:

• Mexico on edge as reports of swine flu cases climb 
  
• UK monitoring swine flu outbreak
  
• UK probes "17 swine flu reports"
  
• Global panic as swine flu spreads to Europe
  
• US declares emergency as Mexico flu death toll rises
  
• Probable Mexico swine flu death toll--103: Minister
  
• Swine flu case confirmed in Spain
  
• Are you worried about flu outbreak?

Related Articles:

• Swine Flu Outbreak Hits The Web Through Spam
• 32 Vaccines against Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu – Or is it? 

Netbook and Cloud Computing: Complimentary or Competition?

The development of the Netbooks is based on the fact of being lighter, smaller and cheaper, allowing computers to be simpler. However, as we pursue being light weight, have we lost the computing power? Cloud Computing maybe the solution to this.

Cloud Computing can be viewed as a distributed computing technique, breaking up one’s computing needs into countless smaller sequences, and distributing them over various servers via the internet. Once completed, they will be sent back to the user.

However, user of Cloud Computing technology does not need to comprehend the complex computing algorithm in the background. From a layman’s perspective, Cloud Computing is a service that brings huge computational power to the user via the internet. User information is not stored in the terminal server but rather in the “Cloud” infrastructure delivered through data centers. However, this does not matter to the end user. What is important is that so long as a user is able to connect to the internet, these computational data will be readily at his disposal.