Posts Tagged attack
How Does Spam Worm It’s Way Into The Social Media Web?
Posted by Lee in Guest Posts, social media on October 5, 2010
Social media web sites have proven to be the thing that has gotten normal people to use the web in a more social manner than they ever had before. Sure, these same people had used email and other technologies to communicate with people but they were usually in the form of quick messages; they did not use email as a way to communicate their everyday activities. If they wanted to know that information they would just use the telephone and contact the person directly. And when it came to instant messaging; only the people who were computer savvy used it on a regular basis. No, social media web sites have really brought the everyday person into the world of the social net and it is only getting bigger.
But of course, when you start to get a large number of people congregating in the same place, you start to attract the wrong kind of attention. You will get people on there that are only on the web site to mess up everyoneelse’s good time. This can come in the form of a troll which is a person that likes to say outlandish things on the internet just to get attention. Or it can come in the form of a black hat hacker. These are people who are trying to trick people into doing an activity that will bring them to a web site that will provide them with monetary gains. One of the tricks that is going around the social media web sites now is called a spam worm. In this article, I will take a look at what a spam worm is and I will hopefully show you how to avoid them when you are on one of these sites.
What is a spam worm?
There are different kinds of malware that affect the internet. Some are benign and some are very dangerous to your system. There is some malware that will try to steal your information and there is some malware that will try to get your online accounts to perform actions that you do not want it to do. A spam worm is the latter and it is more annoying than dangerous in most cases. This is the case for now but that can change at any time. A spam worm’s main job is to send spam to other people by tricking the user into sending it. An example is the twitter version of a spam worm that happened not too long ago. It would prompt the user to click a link – if the person did, they would then send the users that were following them a private DM (direct message) that had a link that led to spam. For the most part, the links that were sent in the twitter attack were not harmful but a problem like this can lead to a worse attack happening.
The technologies behind most spam worms are pretty impressive and they mostly involve the manipulation of JavaScript on the web sites. JavaScript was once a technology that was put to the side and not considered a powerful language. Now it is used all of the time and it’s power is now being shown by attacks such as these. Just because the technology is client-side does not mean that it cannot do any damage.
Now I will take a look at how you can avoid an attack like this from happening to you if you use a social media web site.
Avoid a spam attack from happening to you
When you use the web at anytime, there are certain things that you must do to make sure that you have a safe web surfing session. Most of these prevention methods will allow you to avoid the effects of a spam worm attack. This means that if you are careful about which links that you click on and you vet (pre-approve) the people that are allowed to send you messages on the social media web sites that you are a member of then you should be fine. You will have to remember that even people that you trust can become affected by a worm like this. You have to make sure that even when someone you trust sends you a link that you are skeptical of it. The reason why most of these attacks work is because the links are sent by people that the person trusts (read more on “social engineering“).
A spam worm these days is usually a nuisance and are not really that dangerous but that can change very quickly. There are a lot of attacks that this technique can work with and some of the attacks are very dangerous indeed.
So, before you fall victim to a worse attack, make sure that you take the precautions now.
ATM Biometrics Coming to a Corner Store Near You!
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Security News on August 24, 2010
Looks like ATM machines around North America are due for a security upgrade. This year Barnaby Jack demonstrated both local and remote ATM attacks at Black Hat 2010, and showed how easy it could be to hack an ATM and make it spit cash. Barnaby Jack also revealed a multi-platform ATM rootkit and discussed protection mechanisms that ATM manufacturers can implement to safeguard against these attacks.
Biometric Iris Scanners Coming to A Corner Store Near You!
One protection mechanism that we are now seeing become reality is biometrics. Although it has been in the works for years, it looks like all the futuristic spy movies we watched as kids are coming true as biometric iris scanning ATM machines are looming on the horizon, and in some parts of the world already in action. Of course you’re not likely to see one in your local corner store just yet, but they may well be coming soon! According to Jeff Carter of Global Rainmakers Inc. we’re all going to be connected to the iris system within the next decade.
The computer in a biometric ATM can identify a bank customer and scan their iris even from a distance of greater than three feet. The camera inside the machine takes a focused photo of the eye in black & white, while the system then measures the structure of the iris, and how light and dark areas fall upon it, a successful ID generates a code which is essentially the customers PIN. The latest method of biometrics is “finger vein” technology — an authentication system developed by Japanese tech giant Hitachi. Poland’s cooperative BPS bank says it’s the first in Europe to install a biometric ATM — allowing customers to withdraw cash simply with the touch of a fingertip. The company says that an infrared light is passed through the finger to detect a unique pattern of micro-veins beneath the surface – which is then matched with a pre-registered profile to verify an individual’s identity. “This is a substantially more reliable technique than using fingerprints,” Peter Jones, Hitachi’s head of security and solutions in Europe.
“Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years,”
But what’s happening now is Global Rainmakers Inc. (GRI), based out of New York City, has announced that it will use iris scanning technology to begin creating what it claims will be “the most secure city in the world” in Leon, Mexico. The task is to hook up all of GRI’s city wide iris scanners to a massive database created with law enforcement authorities.
“In the future, whether it’s entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris,” Jeff Carter, CDO of GRI tells tech website FastCompany.com. Jeff Carter claims “Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years,”.
You can read more about Global Rainmakers plans at Prison Planet, here.
Seems to me that things are changing so rapidly, the world around us is quickly become like that of every futuristic movie we’ve ever seen. Nothing is impossible anymore, and with creations and technology such as this the world is supposed to become a more secure place. Do you see this as a step forward, or do you have any objections to this kind of technology?
Sources: CNN World, "Biometric ATM gives cash via 'finger vein' scan." Prison Planet, "Biometric Iris Scanning Technology Rolled Out across entire city". Black Hat USA 2010 ATM Marketplace "Back to the Future: Biometrics Revisited"
Passwords: Brute Force Attack on You
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Computer Security, Password Advice on June 18, 2010
We’ve previously discussed guess attacks and dictionary attacks on your passwords. And we’ve determined now that password security is of the utmost importance. Just today I repaired a machine for a customer and their Vista login password was an old phone number of theirs. Seven digits that could easily be found with an archived search of readily available online databases. As much as passwords are a pain, your security and identity is far more important. Rather deal with a slightly complex password and a little bit of extra thought, than deal with the pain of a stolen identity and lost funds! With what we’ve learned thus far, there is still yet another method attackers can utilize to gain your password.
What’s a brute force attack?
In a brute force attack a hacker would utilize software that would essentially try every possible password. In theory, if there is no limit to the number of attempts, a brute force attack will always be successful since the rules for acceptable passwords must be publicly known; but as the length of the password increases, so does the number of possible passwords. This method is unlikely to be practical unless the password is relatively short.
A common password length recommendation is eight or more randomly chosen characters combining letters, numbers, and special characters (punctuation, etc). This is the key, and a must follow rule of thumb when it comes to making passwords. In addition, don’t use the same password on every website, and especially don’t use same or similar passwords on social networking sites, as you do for banking and online shopping sites that may store your credit card information.
Brute Force attacks get a little more complicated of course, and there are variations, both generic and smart attacks. More can be read about this here.
See these other articles on Information Carnivore:
Passwords are a pain
Hackers may already know your password
Dictionary Attacks on your password
Passwords: Dictionary Attacks
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Computer Security, Password Advice on June 18, 2010
Hackers may already know your password. In a previous post, I wrote about guess attacks by hackers on your password. In this brief post I’m going to write about another method that an attacker could use to get your password. So by now, you’ve already made the important decision to use a different password for your facebook account than you do for your online banking. Good. Still, users often choose weak passwords. I listed some examples of ‘guessable passwords’ in the previous post. There are of course some additional simple examples that hackers can target in what is called a Dictionary Attack.
How can a dictionary attack be used to guess my password?
If your password is a single word which can be found in a dictionary, if it is a given name or family name or if it is too short (generally even six or seven characters is too short), or if your password fits into a criteria that attackers would call predictable (eg, patterns of alternating vowels and consonants, alternating numbers and letters etc). Password research over some 40 years has demonstrated that around 40% of user-chosen passwords are readily guessable by sophisticated cracking programs armed with dictionaries and, perhaps, the user’s personal information
Hackers can use readily available cracking programs into which they enter personal information about the user being attacked and generate common variations for passwords suggested by that information.
If you’ve been following the articles here on information carnivore in the ‘password’ category than you are now able to make some wise password choices. But there is one other form of attack that may be used to gain your password. Brute Force Attacks…
What is a DDOS attack?
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Malware Info on June 17, 2010
From Wikipedia, “A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or people to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers. The term is generally used with regards to computer networks, but is not limited to this field, for example, it is also used in reference to CPU resource management.
One common method of attack involves saturating the target (victim) machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.
Denial-of-service attacks are considered violations of the IAB’s Internet proper use policy, and also violate the acceptable use policies of virtually all Internet service providers. They also commonly constitute violations of the laws of individual nations”
Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal were all victims of a high profile DDOS attack in early August of 2009. [Read more]
What is a zero day vulnerability?
Posted by Daniel Snyder in Malware Info on June 16, 2010
zero day
The term zero day vulnerability (zero day attack or even zero day exploit) gets thrown around a lot in security circles. We often hear it in reports from security vendors regarding recently discovered threats. But what is a zero day vulnerability anyway? Perhaps a lot of ‘average’ computer users hear this term, but would like a simple definition… well here it is.
The short version: A zero-day (or zero-hour or day zero) attack or threat is a computer threat that tries to exploit computer application vulnerabilities that are unknown to others or undisclosed to the software developer. Zero-day exploits (actual code that can use a security hole to carry out an attack) are used or shared by attackers before the software developer knows about the vulnerability.
High Tech Bridge Information Security Systems describes a Zero Day vulnerability as “a vulnerability in software for which a patch is not yet released by the vendor, so hackers can compromise the vulnerable software even if all the necessary patches and updates are properly installed. Hackers usually take an advantage of a ZERO day vulnerability to compromise well-protected systems. Usually 0days vulnerabilities are exploited by worms in order to gather a botnet.
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