Nichole Michelle Merzi, a lead figure in what’s considered to be
the largest international cyber phishing to date, is sentenced to 5 years
imprisonment by the US District Court in Los Angeles.
Merzi is reported to loot thousands of dollars through common
phishing techniques. She teamed up with Egypt-based hackers who carried out the
illicit activity. According to the report issued by the FBI, victims, who were
mainly customers of Wells Fargo and Bank of America, were sent emails claiming
to be sent by their banks. They were then redirected to a website exactly
similar to that of legit banking and financial institutions where they are
asked to submit their credentials.
Once account information is obtained, hackers navigate through the
customers’ account to transfer the money to their own bank accounts in
California.
Merzi’s imprisonment sound good new but it is never a guarantee to
a more secure online transaction. Be smart and identify which website runs SSL
certificates before submitting any account details.
Elements
of an SSL Certificate Trusted Website
You need not be an information technology expert to know if the
website you are visiting is secure or not. You just need to be keen enough to
look for the key indicators of a secure website.
The address bar of the browser is the key area to take note
of when assessing a website. Once you notice that the URL starts with HTTPS
instead of the standard HTTP, the website is trusted with SSL certificate. A
padlock on the address bar also indicates that the website is encrypted with
SSL authentication technology.
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| Image from GMO GlobalSign |
