Avoiding online scams

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/technology/6620383/Avoiding-online-scams

It's Scam Awareness Week, and David Hall has some tips to keep you safe online.

Phishing is essentially an online scam, and phishers are nothing more than tech-savvy con artists.

Online scams constantly evolve to reflect popular events in the news. They're successful is because a scam is not about physically attacking a computer, rather fooling the user into clicking on a poisoned link. They use spam, malicious websites, email messages and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and credit card accounts.

According to the latest Norton Cybercrime Report, more than 868,206 New Zealanders fell victim to cybercrime in 2010, suffering $288.2 million in direct financial losses.

Phishers may use email to request personal information and direct recipients to respond through malicious websites.
Look out for phishers using emotional language, scare tactics or urgent requests to entice recipients to respond.

Phishing sites can look remarkably legitimate, because they tend to use the copyrighted images from legitimate sites.
Be on the lookout for requests for confidential information via email or instant message.

Remember that fraudulent messages are often not personalised and poorly written.

Lastly, think about any offer, any advertisement, any email, and website before you act on any request. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Norton has several free and premium products that can help protect against online scams.

Norton Mobile Security Lite protects your mobile device against loss, theft and malware. Safeguard against malicious URLs by scanning your Facebook feed using Norton Safe Web, which protects your friends by advising them of malicious links.

The Norton Snap QR Code Reader protects your mobile device from online threats by warning you of dangerous QR codes and blocking unsafe websites before they load on your device.

Norton Identity Safe gives you secure access to your website logins, credit card details and secure notes if you're using a computer at an internet cafe or hotel business centre.

Not all antivirus programs are equipped to handle scams, because they only look to protect against intrusive attacks such as viruses. A security program such as Norton One and Norton 360 Version 6 will block or warn you about spam emails and protect you on the web by alerting you if you have stumbled on to a fraudulent or phishing website.
David Hall is Symantec's North Asia product manager.

Norton Scientific Reviews: Symantec source code leaked by hackers

A group of hackers who call themselves the Lords of Dharmaraja, (and is associated with Anonymous) have published the source code of Symantec, a digital security firm know for the Norton antivirus program and pcAnywhere, raising concerns that others could exploit the security holes and try to control the users computer.

 The release of the source code came after the 'extortion' attempt failed as Symantec did not comply with their numerous deadlines.

Negotiations through email messages between a representative of the hacker group, YamaTough, and someone from Symantec were also released online. The exchange of messages are about Symantec's offer to pay USD 50,000 for the hackers to stop disclosing the source code and announce to the public that the whole Symantec hack was a fake, which made them a subject of mockery for appearing to buy protection.

Both sides admitted that their participation was just a trick.

The hackers denied any extortion aim, saying that they never intended to take the money and were going to publish the source code whatever happens; they simply want to humiliate them so they played along. While Symantec said that they are not actually the one in communication with the hacker, but a law enforcement agent.

he long negotiation worked to the favor of Symantec as they have been able to come up with patches to their Norton and pcAnywhere programs. Symantec has advised their users to stop using the softwares in the meantime until they have issued more patches for them.

Symantec released a statement saying that they have always been prepared for the leak of the source code so they've made and distributed hotfixes on January to secure their users.

The drawn-out negotiation is an obvious sign of a law enforcer on the other line. Delaying tactics is one of their assets to obtain insight into the enemy. More importantly, it will create more transactions where paper trail will be left along the way - utilizing persons who have been involved in the process and the records themselves to trace the suspects.

It has been a common ploy of investigators like the FBI who deal with kidnappers or extortionists to break down the amount into several smaller payouts.

Since 2006, Symantec has already suspected there has been a network breach but they were not able to verify any data pilfering until recently when the hackers threatened them to release the source code of Norton.

There are further reports saying that the source code of Symantec was stolen from servers of India's intelligence and military department. (They alleges that Symantec has previously given India the code to guarantee the government that they contain no malicious program.) However, this was denied by Symantec - they have already admitted that the theft happened in their own servers and network.

The security firm formerly said that the Indian group was also the one responsible for the 2006 breach but retracted it today. They are now saying they're not sure who stole the source code in 2006 and how they managed to get their hands on it.