Scam Alert! - Beware of New Online Scams

Business and Personal Safety in the Internet by Joe Gonzalez, Jr.

The IRS warns of a late-breaking Internet tax scam, just before the April 17 deadline. Are you at risk?

The Internal Revenue Service announced Friday that they had discovered a new late-breaking scam: bogus Web sites are masquerading as affiliates of the IRS’s Free File Alliance of 19 tax-software companies. The people who set up these scam sites take tax information from well-meaning taxpayers, change their bank account numbers to their own and then file the return through a legitimate Free File partner.

Solution: The only way to safely participate in the Free File program is by going directly to the official IRS site.

Phishing Scams

New and clever techniques are being used by hackers to get at your information and your computer. In the past we've alerted you to "phishing attacks", where hackers put up web pages imitating legitimate websites and then use email to trick people to visit these sites. The sites then attempt to collect personal information such as account numbers and username/password combinations. Industry analysts say there were more of these types of attacks in February 2004 than in all of last year. Some may appear to come from eBay, PayPal, CitiBank, Bank of America, Mortgage applications to be filled-out and so forth requesting user ID's and passwords. NONE of these institutions will request that type of information by email or by having you click on a "link" - That is the VERY FIRST thing that should make you suspicious. If our company needs to request any further information from you on a background screening search, we will do so in a validated and secure manner that for security reasons cannot detail here.

A new type of attack is a twist on the common virus attack but sent with a clever bit of "social engineering," which attempts to subvert your normal tendency to delete these unsolicited emails and instead open them. For example:

• They purport to be from the same domain or company that your work for, i.e. we receive many "from" our own domain names.

• They appear to be from government or well-known entities, like Microsoft, Amazon, Verisign, etc. One of this variety even claims that you have visited illegal sites, comes from a .gov domain and purports to have a list of these sites in an attachment.

• They contain a link that appears to be to an internal web site that is in fact a link to a hidden attachment in the email.

• They contain realistic messages that declare them virus-free 5. The attachments they contain are zipped and password protected, bypassing some of the major anti-virus programs.

And the biggest problem with these is they change constantly--the same virus can send itself out in almost limitless ways.

The Solution:

1. Realize that much of the unsolicited email prompting you to action (click on a link, log in, open an attachment) are either "phishing" attacks or viruses. It's best practice to ignore all of these emails if they are unsolicited and you are not expecting mail from the sender.
2. We strongly suggest you set your antivirus and mail scan software to update itself every day.
3. Most of the newer forms of viruses and Trojan horses also automatically probe the Internet for vulnerable hosts, targeting
   specific aspects of computers (ports) known to be vulnerable. Many also open a port on your computer to allow others to further compromise your machine. Windows Live OneCare, McAfee Security, Zone Alarm and other personal firewalls can significantly reduce your vulnerability to these automated attacks.

How can I decrease my chance of being a "phishing" victim? - Here are some safety tips:

• Be suspicious of demanding messages. Messages threatening to terminate or suspend your account without your quick response should be treated as suspicious. A legitimate business should not request personal information from you over an unsecured Web site. When in doubt, call the business customer service number (available on your account statement) to confirm the status of your account. Do not use telephone numbers found on the suspected Web site or email.

• Be cautious of downloads. Installing unknown software on your computer can put your personal information at risk and potentially harm your computer's hard drive. Make sure the software comes from a legitimate Web site, not an e-mail message. If you are not sure whether you should download a program, contact a customer service representative for more information.

• Always type in the URL of the Web page you need. Phishing scams rely on embedded links that take you to fake Web sites. It is safer to type your intended Web address directly into your browser so you know you are visiting the legitimate site.

• Protect your password. Do not write down sensitive personal information such as your login ID, password or Social Security number.

• Keep your computer up-to-date. Industry best practices recommend that you install anti-virus and firewall programs to help keep your computer safe and that you keep updated with the latest security improvements of your software providers.

Channels
While the world-wide-web and email are the two most heavily used functions of the Internet and thus the most widely abused to send viruses and cultivate chaos, other services are also used to compromise vulnerable systems and steal important information.
Chat services, such as AOL's Instant Messaging, Microsoft's Messenger, IRC, ICQ and Yahoo! Chat can be used to exchange files and send potentially malicious links. It is easy in chat services to spoof the site that a web link appears to belong, sending you to a hacker's website that looks like a legitimate company site. It is also simple to alter a character or two of a chat username or handle, creating the ability to pose as someone else. For example, changing the letter "O" to the number "0" (zero), making BOB = B0B
Files can be sent via chat sessions much the same way that files can be sent as attachments in emails. These are usually automatically stored in locations on your computer's hard drive known to hackers. With this knowledge, a hacker can potentially trick you into running malicious programs with a disguised web address in an email, a chat window or a web page. Be extremely cautious when exchanging files sent via chat sessions, and always confirm the sender's identity.

Sasser Worm
In a May 11, 2004, a USA Today newspaper article said that much of the reason the Sasser worm spread through the Internet, disabling company networks so quickly and effectively, was due to poor VPN and mobile computer policies. The article went on to say that more and more networks are at risk because the strong security policies enforced within an office are often not carried over to road warriors, people working from home and remote offices. Unsuspecting travelers might connect at vulnerable facilities such as coffee shops or allow unsuspecting family members to compromise a laptop due to ignorance?

Part of the solution is to have provisions in place that can potentially identify a compromised or infected computer reconnecting to the network. Each returning company laptop should be treated as if it had contracted a virus or other malady while away, effectively quarantining it prior to allowing it full access.

Virus Tricks!!! - A new method of tricking users into installing malicious mobile code is to imbed an executable file within an email message and then provide what appears to be a web page address in the body of the email, but is instead a disguised pointer to the file within the email message. The body of these emails is in this format:
*************** If the message will not displayed automatically, follow the link to read the delivered message. Received message is available at: www[dot]yourdomain[dot]com/inbox/compliance/read.php?sessionid-1500
***************

If you scroll your mouse over the link of an actual virus email in Microsoft Outlook, you would notice the real web site address displayed in the lower status window, and it would begin with something similar to outbind://{a really long number].

Clicking on the link would effectively run the virus program or prompt you to run/save it. No computer connected to the Internet should be considered even nominally safe without up-to-date versions of anti-virus software, a personal firewall and a completely patched operating system. Identification theft is turning more and more to the easily and anonymously accessible vulnerable systems on the Internet. Vulnerable computers are often used as jumping-off points which make perpetrators of crimes extremely difficult to track and identify.

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