Phishing scams — the ones that try to get you to provide private information by masquerading as a legitimate company — are often easy to detect if you have a sceptical approach, but you can get caught out if you let your guard down. Here’s how you can boost your phishing detection skills and protect yourself during those times when you’re not at full attention. More »
Phishing emails (which try and steal your personal information by pretending to be from a company or service provider) often run in waves. The rapid rise of social networking means that there’s been a lot of emphasis recently on protecting your Facebook and Twitter accounts from phishing attempts. While that’s still important, right now phishing mail is once again concentrating on data that’s easy to profit from: bank account and eBay login details. More »
Facebook’s application architecture (and indifferent attitude) means that it’s all too easy to be sent dodgy links by well-meaning friends. Norton’s Safe Web application for Facebook scans your news feed and wall, alerting you to material that could potentially cause a problem. More »
With 500 million users offering up reams of personal data and ever-shifting and confusing privacy policies, Facebook is a tempting target for phishing and other nefarious activities. And it’s no wonder given the company’s attitude to security. When hackers find vulnerabilities in the service, don’t expect any help from Facebook, which has adopted a “blame the user” mentality that refuses to acknowledge any possibility of a flaw in its own infrastructure. More »
According to a survey of 2,510 Australians, 10% of Internet users have suffered from some form of online fraud in the last year. But the headline figure being used to announce that result — the claim that $1.3 billion has been lost — isn’t exactly accurate. More »
You may have noticed that this week is National Cyber Security Awareness Week. Staying secure online remains largely a matter of alertness and common sense, but new survey data makes it clear that it isn’t just our communications minister who is clueless when it comes to passwords and other security matters. More »
Earlier today, several Twitter users received emails from Twitter prompting them to change their passwords because of suspicious activity that appeared to have resulted from phishing. Turns out it was something different from a traditional phishing scam altogether, and it involved BitTorrent. More »
Lifehacker readers have great phishing IQs, but if you’d like a little extra reassurance before clicking through to your PayPal account, for example, Gmail Labs’ new “Authentication icon for verified senders” feature adds an extra bit of reassurance. More »
Windows only: Truemark Email Identification is a simple tool in the defence against fraudulent emails. Whether you’re in desktop or web-based email, you’re given instant visual verification that an email is legitimate. While there’s no substitute for a healthy dose of paranoia with a chaser of concern for privacy and security, Iconix Truemark complements any email setup. Truemark adds a small icon next to any corporate or web service’s name, but only if it’s been checked against a list of domain keys and sender IDs maintained by Iconix. Mouse over the icon and you get more detail; don’t see an icon, you know Amazon might not actually need a password reset. Truemark currently works with a variety of webmail applictions via Firefox and Internet Explorer plugins, including Gmail, AOL Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and with client-based email like Outlook 2003/2007 and Outlook Express. Iconix Truemark is freeware, with plugins available for Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Outlook, on Windows only. Iconix Truemark [via gHacks]
