Slashdot Mirror
Anti-Phishing Tools
mikeage writes "PCWorld has an article about an anti-phishing tool available that tries to detect fake websites." This is about Web Caller-ID already in use by eBay's custom user toolbar. The article also talks a bit about the incredible increase in phishing scams.
Does That Web Site Look Phishy?
WholeSecurity's new software claims to identify fraudulent sites.
Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Monday, August 16, 2004
A new software tool from WholeSecurity can spot fraudulent Web sites used in online cons known as "phishing" scams, according to a statement from the company.
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The new product, called Web Caller-ID, can detect Web pages dressed up to look like legitimate e-commerce sites. WholeSecurity is marketing the technology to banks, credit card companies, and online retailers as a way to prevent unwitting customers from accessing false sites, to reduce fraud, and increase confidence in online commerce, the company says.
Phishing scams are online crimes that use unsolicited commercial, or "spam," e-mail to direct Internet users to Web sites controlled by thieves, but are designed to look like legitimate e-commerce sites. Users are asked to provide sensitive information such as a password, Social Security number, bank account, or credit card number, often under the guise of updating account information.
Already in Use
A version of Web Caller-ID is already being used by EBay in a feature called Account Guard, part of an EBay Web browser toolbar that users of the online auction site can download for free. The feature detects suspicious behavior, such as Web URLs that disguise the true Internet address of the site the user is visiting.
Companies can license a Web browser plug-in from WholeSecurity, which can then be distributed to customers directly or as part of a Web browser toolbar. Alternatively, companies can sign up for an e-mail processing service from WholeSecurity that harvests information on phishing scams from spam e-mail or customer complaint e-mail sent to the company, WholeSecurity says.
A Web browser-based management console lets administrators view suspected phisher sites, file complaints against spoof Web sites, or fine-tune the Web Caller-ID technology to adapt to their company's Web site.
On the Rise
Reports of phishing attacks have skyrocketed in recent months, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), a joint industry-law enforcement group.
There were 1422 new, unique attacks reported to the APWG in June, a 19 percent increase over the previous month. Since the beginning of 2004, reports of the attacks have grown by 52 percent a month on average, the group says.
A survey of 5000 adult Internet users by research firm Gartner released in April found that the number of phishing attacks spiked in the last year and that around 3 percent of those surveyed reported giving up personal financial or personal information after being drawn into a phishing scam. The results suggest that as many as 30 million adults have experienced a phishing attack and that 1.78 million adults could have fallen victim to the scams, Gartner says.
Taking the First Step
Web Caller-ID is not a cure-all for the phishing problem, but is a good first step to provide comprehensive protection from the scams, says Howard Schmidt, former White House cybersecurity advisor and the current chief information security officer at EBay.
"These are some of the things we need to do moving forward--getting technology built into the Web browsers themselves to do these things," he says.
However, better user education and stronger security from online retailers, banks, and financial institutions is also needed to protect technically unsophisticated consumers from complex online cons like phishing attacks, Schmidt says.
"You can't put somebody in a car and tell them to drive, but not tell them what the brake and gas pedal are for," he says.
...I wasn't supposed to give s1ashdot my credit card number to read this story?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Just don't click on any links via email to anything unless you solicited it (such as an email verification to a mailing list you're subscribing to). When I'm in doubt, all I do is type in the URL to the bank/brokerage/etc. web site myself (fire up browser and type in homepage URL), log in and find out if there is anything going on. Most such websites have a way to look at everything and take any needed action right away after you type in a user/pass.
*sigh* and on that note there is a sucker born every minute I suppose.
...in bed
From what you and I probably see, yes. Phishing begins with an email, because we probably don't browse shady sites regularly. I don't know what the average user sees in their regular browsing. I can't even figure out where people get all the spyware from in the first place. As far as phishing emails, I know I get one email regularly that looks like a CitiBank email, but it is a .jpg file embedded. The URL has citi in it, but if you look closer, it's obviously not the right sight. I'd report it, but Citi Bank's online reporting sucks.
Phish Net
Some folks here may find it usefull.
This nifty quiz can help you assess your phishing detection abilities. Recommended.
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
It's for mortgage spammers and not phishers, but I'm a fan of the Unsolicited Commando project. It's a little Java app that spends its day filling out mortgage applications on spamvertised sites with completely believable - but totally bogus - personal data. The source is available so perhaps a clever person could randomly generate credit card numbers and adapt the program to attack phish sites.
The first step is obviously to check the headers of an email you receive. Just see who sent you the damn thing (from Received headers). Was it actually an IP belonging to .paypal.com? This is easy to check using 'whois'. If the whois lookup shows the IP delivering you the email is from the company you expect (VISA, Paypal, Ebay) then it's fine.
OK, how about an example. Take this US Bank phishing scam, here are the Received headers:
The first Received hop is my ISP. The second Received hop is the only important one; it describes the connecting host. Note that the host here pretended to be usbank.com but that name is a sender-supplied ID; it's worthless. What you're looking for is the IP address between square brackets, which can not be forged. Now just check 211.209.208.87 using whois
See, easy. This email came from Korea, not US Bank. It's a scam!