Phishing Attack Targets Telecommunication Giant

US-based AT&T customers are faced with more than 200,000 fake emails.

The massive phishing campaign distributes emails masquerading as billing information from the telecommunication company. According to a report however, the phishing email proved to be not a sophisticated one as there are a number of things which can make you suspicious. First, the amount of money it requires for a monthly bill is way too large. Also, a different link will appear upon hovering the mouse over the listed link.

What’s alarming with it though is that, should an unsuspecting use follow the link, a malware will be downloaded to his computer which is currently not detected by most antivirus products. After the malware is loaded on the computer, it will drop files on the Application Data and Temp Folders, then injects code into running applications and/or programs. Then, it accesses a Bot network where the attacker can instruct the malware to take further actions.

Outwit the Witty Criminals

Today’s crime scenes have shifted from the blood-filled scary grounds to the supposedly safe and secure internet. For cybercrimes, the question of who did it doesn’t matter much, but why the user fell as victim does!

Lack of information and knowledge base is often almost the reason why net users get tricked by malicious attacks. Thus, to increase users’ vantage point over criminals, getting the most relevant information is important. Before clicking on any website or email link, one must first be suspicious of the sender, the email content, and the link itself. If you want to follow the link, it is best to copy it and paste on the browser’s address bar, than to click it directly. This way, you’ll verify if the link loads a legit age or if it redirects to another site.

Moreover, users must also increase their knowledge-base on the elements of a secure site. Most websites today, not just those allowing online transactions, are safeguarded by SSL certificates. These certificates encrypt the website contents, mitigating the risk of breaches. SSL certificates are issued by trusted Certificate Authorities like GlobalSign. There are number of SSL certificates offered in the market today ranging from the simplest to the most sophisticated: Domain Validation SSL, Organizational Validation SSL, Extended Validation SSL.

Visit www.globalsign.com.sg/ssl to know more about online security.

Keywords: SSL, EV SSL, DV, OV, phishing

We'd be glad to hear from you, contact us at (+65) 3158 0349, or send us an email.

*Source: http://ow.ly/cOCO4 

Phishing Email Targets eBay Sellers

A phishing email claiming to be from an unsatisfied customer targets eBay sellers.

It is a common knowledge among eBay sellers and buyers that to increase customer trust and revenue on the buying site, one needs to have good customer feedback. The recently spotted scam email alarms eBay sellers by threatening to post a negative feedback and tricks them to follow a link to reply the message so as to pacify the customer and prevent the feedback from being published.  

Unsurprisingly, the link will lead them to a fake eBay login page where they’re supposed to enter their login credentials. Upon clicking the sign in button, customers are then redirected to the legit eBay website but their credentials have already been harvested by the malicious criminals.

Spotting the Phishing Scam

Anyone can fall victim of a sophisticated phishing email. As always, apart from being ever-suspicious, having the right knowledge in identifying which one is legit and which is not will be your best weapon of defence against these malicious attacks.

To uncover simple phishing attacks, one can examine the link. Some of the links devised for phishing has errors on the spelling. Some may have doubled letters which are hard to notice unless you are a really keen observer, like they may be faceboook.com, instead of facebook.com. Another thing one can do is to run a quick check on the sender’s identity or to send an inquiry to the institution which supposedly sent the email confirming the validity of the mail.

While the said methods may prove helpful in identifying a scam email, they are undoubtedly time consuming. An easier and more effective way to check the legitimacy of a website is through SSL Certificates. A website encrypted with an SSL certificate is a trusted one which owner’s identity has already been validated by a Certificate Authority like GlobalSign.

You’ll find some important trust marks in a trusted website running an SSL Certificate. First, the security padlock and the https on the address bar. Once clicked, the padlock will provide information on the identity of the owner and the issuing Certificate Authority. For some SSL with higher protection, like GlobalSign Extended Validation SSL, the address bar will turn green making it easier for users to identify that they’re browsing on a secure site.

Source: http://ow.ly/cGfWu 

Keywords: Phishing, ev ssl, ssl, globalsign, 

We'd be glad to hear from you, contact us at (+65) 3158 0349, or send us an email.

Certifying and Approving PDF with DocumentSign [Part 4 of a 4-Part Series]

Technologies have already gone way far beyond a lay person can fathom. And people just have to cope with whatever comes along with the advances, be it advantageous or not.

Portable Digital Files are becoming more popularly used as they successfully eradicate the issue of software compatibility. This popularity of use of PDF invites not only people intending to use it to increase productivity, but also those who have malicious intents thus, putting an end to the thought that PDF files cannot be altered and are therefore secure.

 Although editing a PDF is a bit more tedious than altering a word file, there is still no guarantee that the document integrity is kept intact unless it is encrypted with a digital certificate which verifies the identity of the owner, authenticates the document, and keeps it from being altered.

The ever increasing digital crimes have pushed Adobe to launch the Certified Document Services  (CDS) program which operates under a stringent set of policies and standards developed and implemented by Adobe and audited by WebTrust. GlobalSign is an authorized participant in the Adobe CDS program allowing it GlobalSign to issue Adobe recognised CDS Certificates, branded as DocumentSign Digital IDs, to both individuals and departmental entities.

GlobalSign’s DocumentSign allows users to certify and/or approve PDF distributed over the internet.  The process is the virtual equivalent to sealing a document and adding wet-ink signatures and assuring the recipient that the document is authentic, comes from a verified source, and the contents have not been altered or tampered with since publication.

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We hope this shared information was helpful in having a better grasp of what Digital IDs are and how there are important especially in this modern digital world. This ends our 4-part series, we hope you found it informative.

For more information, you may visit our website at www.globalsign.com.sg

Keywords: Adobe CDS, PDF signing, DocumentSign, GlobalSign

We’d be glad to hear from you, contact us at: (+65) 3158 0349, or send us an inquiry at sales-apac@globalsign.com