Published:
December 01 2009, 06:50 AM
by
Methusela Cebrian Ferrer
CA ISBU would like to remind everyone about online safety this holiday season. Here are the top ten you shouldn't miss:
No. 1 - Avoid 'Click-happy' Accidents
Don’t be 'Click-happy' person, be cautious before clicking and following links.
No. 2 - Evil Greeting Cards
Watch your incoming emails! In the past we’ve seen Waledac malicious greeting cards such as “e-Cards”, “You’ve received a Greeting Card...” and recent ones are getting more personalized subjects like “Hello Darling”.
No. 3 - Phishing Tricks
Be aware of Phishers! Phishing email commonly targets PayPal, eBay and Amazon users although bank notification emails and credit card frauds are also on the top schemes of these financially motivated attackers.
No. 4 - Surfing Disaster
Surf the internet safely, make sure your online security protection is turned on(firewall, HIPS and anti-malware). Cyber threats uses blackhat search engine optimization to direct traffic to malicious websites. [read here ]
Another surfing disaster is when you visit a legitimate website that is infected with Drive-by download.
No. 5 - Holiday Scammers
If it sounds too good to be true, then think again.
This scams may arrive in very powerful convincing strategy either by offering you a job, big discounts or winning from a lottery. In most cases, it provides instructions on how to claim the offer which often require users an initial sum of money or personal information like credit card details.
No. 6 - Charity Fraud
Are you in the mood of helping and giving this season?
Donate but make sure you know and understand the cause of your selected Charity organization. Avoid engaging into hasty decision by just following a good looking email or visiting unfamiliar website. Spend time to research and don’t hesitate to ask!
No. 7 - Deceptive Shopping Deals
In a gloomy economy, many of us try to maximize by finding the best deal for our money. Internet has been a great source of information and this includes discount coupons, gift cards and freebies. Scammers will often mislead users and often require money such as from joining/membership fee, selling items or getting credit card information.
For online shopper, please be aware of dubious “price-comparison” websites as well. [Recent related news]
No. 8 - Dangerous Downloads & Installs
Spammed malware uses social engineering technique such as the “Delivery Problem”. This email message pretends to be coming from legitimate companies such as UPS, DHL and FedEx. The convincing looks and content often leads to manual download and installation of malicious program.
Related pick-up lines are:
We’ve Got Your Postal Tracking Number
Western Union transfer is available for withdrawal
Another source of dangerous download and installs is when looking for pirated softwares.
No. 9 - Identity Theft
Holiday hackers, password stealers and banking trojans may take advantage of the festive season.
Social networking site is another notable target this season. This communities are source of communication and exchange where people get in-touch with friends and families by sending greetings, updates and showing photos and videos. Threats such as Koobface may take advantage of “happy mood” by deploying customized theme to increases its chances of infection.
No. 10 – Enable Security Protections
Be cautious about your online activity, enable online projection, update your security software and save energy by turning off your computer when not in-use (this also avoid inside and outsider threat sneak into your files).
Happy December!
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