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IBM Reports On Spear Phishers

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the something-to-think-about dept.

FrenchyinOntario writes "IBM reports that while "regular" phishing is declining the black hats are now engaging in targeted spear phishing to glean as much information about a specific identity as they can for all the usual cybercrime reasons. It concerns authorities because the usual suspects - criminal and terrorist organizations - will want to take advantage of this, but the chilling part is how your identity will now be dependent on multiple institutions protecting your personal information, as opposed to eBay, PayPal, your bank, etc."

3 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. aw, crud.. by werelord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And this is probably the easiest fishing they'll be able to do.. Until companies are made liable for any damages that occurr when they "lose" their information, this will probably be an extremely easy method of fishing..

    Social Engineering, anyone??

  2. Re:A way around this... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Yes, of course, because the National ID card is the magic wand of the identification world, isn't it? There's no way any one could possibly forge one of those...

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  3. Re:it's bad on IRC by Steinfiend · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What are the IRC Ops supposed to do in a case like this? I'm not trying to be a troll, I'm seriously asking. They can ban the users, they can close the room, and they can send the logs to whatever law enforcement agencies are responsible for their area. However, how much will that achieve?

    A Romanian scammer, on a Brazilian server (just a random pick, not trying to suggest anything negative about Brazil), scamming an American user. The legal hoops are mind-boggling. That's if the IRC Ops can even get any useful information from their logs, which isn't 100% sure.