{"id":3962,"date":"2013-11-11T12:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=3962"},"modified":"2013-11-11T12:30:32","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T17:30:32","slug":"beware-scammers-gathering-data-via-fake-social-net-ids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/11\/11\/beware-scammers-gathering-data-via-fake-social-net-ids\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware scammers gathering data via fake social net IDs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spear phishing is one of the most effective ways to break into a corporate network, and recent studies show that employees can be easily tricked on social media to provide the information needed to launch attacks.<\/p>\n

A phishing attack is only as good as the information hackers are able to gather on the intended victim, who is less likely to click on a malicious link or attachment in an email that does appear to come from a trusted sender. As a result, criminals often research their targets on the Web.<\/p>\n

For example, Websense Security Labs recently found a fake LinkedIn profile gathering information that could be used in future attacks.<\/p>\n

The profile summary pretends to be that of “Jessica Reinsch,” a made-up employee of a real dating Web site that connects young women with older, wealthy men. The site is located in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

While Websense did not find any malicious code on the site, the vendor did find other related domains hosting “suspicious code.” In addition, the IPs used to host the site are in the same autonomous system number (ASN) as multiple exploit kit command and control URLs, including those for RedKit and Neutrino, according to Websense.<\/p>\n

The bogus profile had more than 400 connections with legitimate LinkedIn members, giving whoever was behind the account access to people\\’s current employer, job titles, and connections on the network, which has more than 250 million members.<\/p>\n

Jeff Debrosse, director of security research at Websense, said such information would be used to build a social graph of prominent individuals that could be used in spear-phishing attacks.<\/p>\n

“That’s worth a lot of money to the buyers of that information,” Debrosse told CSOonline.<\/p>\n

Businesses warned<\/p>\n

While reconnaissance on potential victims grows more sophisticated, corporations appear to underestimate the threat. Almost 60 percent of 300 IT executives, administrators and professionals in U.S. organizations rated phishing as a “minimal” impact threat, according to an unscientific survey by ThreatSim.<\/p>\n

While rating phishing as a low-level threat, more than one in four of the respondents reported phishing attacks that led to a “material breach within the last year.” ThreatSim defined “material” as some form of malware infection, unauthorized access, and stolen data.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

During a presentation at the RSA Europe security conference in Amsterdam last week, a cyberdefense specialist described an experiment that showed the effectiveness of using fake profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook to launch an attack.<\/p>\n

Aamir Lakhani with IT service provider World Wide Technology described how the fake profile of an attractive female named Emily Williams was used to eventually get employees of an unnamed U.S. government agency to click on a link that could easily have been used to launch malware.<\/p>\n

The bogus profile claimed Williams was a new hire at the agency with ten years experience and a 28-year-old graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers set up information about the woman on other Web sites to make the profile seem more credible.<\/p>\n

Within 15 hours of launching the profile, Williams had 60 Facebook and 55 LinkedIn connections with agency employees and contractors. After 24 hours, she had three job offers from other companies.<\/p>\n

The experiment pointed to the need for continuous training in organizations to reduce the chance of employees becoming victims of phishers.<\/p>\n

“In the military it’s called situational awareness,” Lakhani told IDG News Service. “We need to develop situational awareness for this type of attack.”<\/p>\n

via Beware scammers gathering data via fake social net IDs | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spear phishing is one of the most effective ways to break into a corporate network, and recent studies show that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[342,453,941,995],"class_list":["post-3962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-social-media","tag-exploits","tag-hackers","tag-scammers","tag-social-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-11U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7685,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/02\/27\/hackers-impersonating-it-staff-popular-tactic-in-data-breaches-fireeye-finds\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":0},"title":"Hackers impersonating IT staff popular tactic in data breaches, FireEye finds","author":"NCCT","date":"February 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Fresh FireEye research suggests that today's cyberattackers are becoming smarter about the systems they seek to break, and are commonly using impersonation and social engineering to tap into the most common weakness in the security chain -- employees. Within FireEye's sixth annual M-trends report, which tracks the threat landscape and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7464,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/01\/19\/travelers-beware-hackers-are-after-your-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":1},"title":"Travelers beware: Hackers are after your information","author":"NCCT","date":"January 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Frequent fliers get all the perks\u2014and all the attention from cyber criminals, apparently. United Airlines, American Airlines, and Park-n-Fly have all reported breaches in the past few days, pointing to an emerging trend of attacks targeted specifically at travelers. Travelers can be an easy mark for cyber criminals, because they're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6209,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/08\/12\/classic-facebook-color-changer-scam-makes-another-comeback\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":2},"title":"Classic Facebook “Color Changer” scam makes another comeback","author":"NCCT","date":"August 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"On Facebook, some scams are so alluring that they seem to live forever. So it goes with \u201cFacebook Color Changer,\u201d a new malware attack that masquerades as a way to change the appearance of Facebook\u2019s Website. Security firm Cheetah Mobile claims that the latest scam has affected more than 10,000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8385,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/06\/04\/security-breaches-a-monthly-headache-for-firms-deliberate-targeting-on-the-rise-cost-of-cleaning-up-doubles\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":3},"title":"Security breaches a monthly headache for firms, deliberate targeting on the rise, cost of cleaning up doubles","author":"NCCT","date":"June 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Wessel du Plooy\/iStock A growing number of companies are being subjected to increasingly sophisticated attacks on their systems, as the cost of recovering from these assaults continues to rocket. According to the 2015 Information Security Breaches Survey report commissioned by the UK government, 90 percent of large organisations reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3166,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/08\/12\/password-thieves-target-blogs-content-management-sites\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":4},"title":"Password thieves target blogs, content management sites","author":"NCCT","date":"August 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Brute force attacks to pry login credentials from content management sites like blogs have been growing as more data robbers use a short-term gain for a bigger payoff later on. Such sites are attractive targets because they tend to be less secure than other environments\u2014such as financial services\u2014and since they're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9031,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2016\/09\/24\/heres-what-you-should-know-and-do-about-the-yahoo-breach\/","url_meta":{"origin":3962,"position":5},"title":"Here’s what you should know, and do, about the Yahoo breach","author":"NCCT","date":"September 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Lucian Constantin | IDG News Service | PCWorld Yahoo\u2019s announcement that state-sponsored hackers have stolen the details of at least 500 million accounts shocks both through scale\u2014it\u2019s the largest data breach ever\u2014and the potential security implications for users. That\u2019s because Yahoo, unlike MySpace, LinkedIn and other online services that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}