A few news stories have been circulating about the looming identity theft threat to couples who have decided to tie the knot. Thieves prey on our deepest and strongest emotions, and two people madly in love and about to take the plunge are certainly full of emotions and stress. Stress makes us more apt to decide quickly, without thinking the situation through. The sense of relief we feel may encourage us to accept an offer that seems “too good to be true” when we might otherwise hesitate. Our families and friends may also be targeted, for much the same reasons. Think like a thief- on average weddings cost over $20,000 and guest gifts range between $50-150 each. That places a rather large bulls-eye on anyone involved. Here is just a small list of the kinds of scams that are lurking out there:

• Fake vendors- these are identity thieves or card frauders. They are online, at bridal shows, and call individuals out of the blue. You may be even approaching them for a genuine service advertised in the classifieds or a bridal magazine, or it may be a “sweepstakes”. As part of the “contract” or “application” you answer personal questions in great detail or provide a credit card number that is later used to defraud you.

• Fraud vendors- this category is not technically identity theft, but still leaves you stung. Often you are promised a “free” sample and hand over your credit card for shipping and handling, and then find yourself with outrageous charges. Vendors take a deposit for renting you an item as pictured on their site, and when the big day comes, nothing arrives or what arrives bears little resemblance to the model. Sweepstakes and Giveaways should be especially scrutinized if you get a call and you “won” – there may be strings attached.

• Crooks- these people take advantage of the fact you share so much about your event. They may rob your house while you’re exchanging rings, or wait until you’re away on honeymoon. While everyone at the reception is distracted, they snatch purses or sneak into hotel rooms. Honeymooners are easily targeted by pickpockets, camera snatchers, and hustlers.

• Disappearing act- this can be anything from a deposit you paid disappearing from the books to a company suddenly going bankrupt. Bankruptcies are up 47% from last year, so this is a big concern. While insurance can help protect you, it is important to purchase coverage carefully.

• Malware – There are tons of “free” applications out there to help out couples. Cost calculators, dress design software, websites, countdown clocks, reminders, calendars, the list goes on… Then there are the flash animations and videos of weddings, decorations, crafts, flowers and more. However, some of these may contain harmful code that could harvest your information and place you at risk for identity theft and fraud.

• Robocalls and junk mail – While shopping around online or in person, you’re often asked to leave your contact information. This can result in an increase in junk mail offers and robocalls. Some of these are likely phishing attempts, and are cleverly disguised. Another risk with increased junk mail is the possibility of mail theft going unnoticed for a longer period of time. Pre-approved credit card offers may inflate your mailbox, also increasing your risk of fraud.

• “In distress” scam- this is commonly used while a couple is on honeymoon, but can strike at any time. Fraudsters may call, email, or take over your email or social networking accounts to contact your friends and family claiming to need emergency money. Excuses range from medical emergencies, to being kidnapped. Often they have “been robbed” and need the money to get home. The rest is ALWAYS to wire money or send Western Union.

• YOU – of all the threats, YOU might be your own worst enemy. Many couples have wedding announcements; send emails, e-vites, wedding websites, social networking pages, online gift registries with their personal information, personal details, family details, and wedding, reception and honeymoon specifics available to the public at large. Brides and grooms alike tend to become excited and may share greater detail about themselves, their partners and the event with coworkers and friends… and florists, photographers, DJs (or anyone else who will listen).

With a few minor changes and some awareness, you can still have all the bells and whistles to your big day while keeping your friends, family and your identity safe.

• Assume the numbers and addresses you are using to contact vendors, get quotes, order catalogs are going to be stolen, traded and sold over and over. Set up a PO Box and a separate number to use for your contact information.

• Contact the Better Business Bureau in your area about any vendor, sweepstakes, or service you are going to fork over a large amount of money to, or that you are unfamiliar with. Do this before you provide them any personal or contact information.

• Always assume that calls you receive are compromised and never reveal any personal information. You may trust calls you initiate to a trusted business more, but still exercise caution.

• Read ALL fine print carefully. TWICE.

• Keep all receipts; require everything in writing and document, document, document. Go over all your credit card and bank statements monthly and notify your financial institution right away if you notice any unusual activity.

• Quarantine. Don’t use the same passwords or email account for your social networking sites, registry, and wedding webpage. You should never attach your “trusted” email account you have been using to communicate with your friends and family to another site. A compromise of a social networking site can easily lead to an email compromise, and makes it easier for fraudsters to contact your entire address book for money. If your quarantined email is hacked and messages sent to all your friends, they should be more cautious since it is a different email than they are used to communicating with you. This will buy you enough time that you can then use your “trusted” email account to notify them all of the fraud (or better yet- call them!).

• Never send money Western Union- this is one of the few ways you can send money and never get it back. Provide contact information to their nearest consulate if you are met with this scam online.

• Limit access to personal information- If you are going to list the details of your big day and honeymoon, look for websites that allow you to create a wedding website for friends only, or that is password protected so you can control who has access.

• Be careful of accidentally revealing personal information like your mother’s maiden name (which may be derived from guest lists or online friend list on social networking sites) and your date or place of birth. Also, you will be asked a lot of questions so people can “get to know you” before your big day- make sure none of these questions and answers correspond to the security questions of any account you have. Go through each online account and determine what questions are asked if you click “I forgot my password”. You may wish to change those answers.

• Find gift registries that allow you to control privacy, and insist on revealing as little about yourself as possible. Gift registries often offer a disturbing amount of detail about you, and often are generally open to the public.

Check your credit reports regularly with www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.  If you do experiance fraud or a scam, report it to your Better Business Bureau and the FTC and place fraud alerts with the major credit bureaus.

By Rebcca Seaman

 With the rise (and benefits!) of professional Social Networking, Hackers are increasingly turning their energies away from ‘old school’ methods  of inflicting harm on  organizations (such as email containing viruses and Trojans) and focusing more on Social Networking vulnerabilities.

According to a recent report conducted by the Secure Enterprise 2.0 Forum, hackers have increasingly used programs like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to perpetuate malware and this trend is expected to increase as more and more organizations incorporate Social Networking into their standard practices.

In an article titled Fail 2.0: Further Musings on Attacking Social Networks,  Shawn Moyer writes “Social networking sites are meant to get as many users in one place as possible on one platform, and for attackers there’s a lot of return-on-investment in going after them.”So how can you protect yourself and your organization? My best advice would be to remember that while you are on the web at work; you are wholly responsible for protecting the information you transmit. Don’t rely solely of your organization’s malware and virus filters to catch any potential harmful software-it’s up to you to be diligent as well. And just as you wouldn’t broadcast sensitive data in a chartroom, think twice about what you say on Twitter, Facebook and the like (check our Rachel’s blogs on the ownership terms and conditions of some of these sites).

Of course, the end result of these types of hacks can be extremely harmful both to your company and your career-you don’t want to be responsible for exposing trade secrets or sensitive data inadvertently. According to the report, nearly 30 percent of the attacks did lead to the exposure of sensitive information. Additionally, Around 13 percent resulted in actual monetary loss, while more than 10 percent installed malware on computers or their corresponding networks.

Most people think about computers as the vulnerable technology in their life. However, your mobile or smart phone is often overlooked as a possible risk. In some cases, phones may be even more vulnerable since they typically don’t carry the firewall or antivirus programs that many of us utilize on our computers. Additionally, people are more likely to click on links, downloads and attachments from our phone. These can all be clever malware attacks. Attacks can gather personal information, obtain your contact list, and disable messaging and phone services and more. Other attacks can even impact battery life, and create high usage bills. A recent article on research findings in this field highlights some of these attacks:

CommWarrior is a virus family affecting cell phones operating Symbian OS S60 2nd edition. The virus extracts numbers from the contact list of the infected phone, and sends a MMS carrying an infected installation file. This file usually poses as a recreation (game, ringtones, porn & etc) or utilitarian (antivirus, desktop manager & etc) application. The device will be infected once the target executes the application. Currently, CommWarrior is being reported in over 18 different countries around Asia, Europe and North America.

BeSeLo, a virus affecting cell phones operating Symbian OS S60 2nd edition. Unlike Commwarrior, BeSeLo not only extracts numbers from the contact list of the infected phone, but also generates some by itself. It then sends those numbers an MMS carrying an infected installation file.

Spyphone is a Trojan Horse that conducts various spying operations on the infected device (including monitoring incoming calls), on behalf of the individual who sent it to the victim. It does not have an automated infection routine: an attacker has to actively send it to the selected victim, on the form of an installation file. Upon execution of this file, the victim is prompted with the following message: “Install Sysapp? Yes / No”. Selecting “Yes” will lead to the definitive infection.

Cell phone users should be cautious about opening attachments from all sources, even it is appears to be coming from your best friend. Be cautious of file extensions and if it prompts for an application installation, you should be concerned. Always put your mobile phone in Bluetooth disabled mode when not in use, and if you use your cell phone as a wireless modem, be sure to utilize security features that lock down your connection. Don’t download ringtones, applications, games or other software- only use a trusted company such as your phone provider for these products. Explore data encryption methods and additional password protection for the files on your device. Keep checking this blog for more information on cell phone security.

A new scam attempt, aimed at playing on our greatest fears, is making it’s way around cyberspace. ComputerWorld reports that hackers are using this trick to try to get you to download malware onto your computer. They are being so clever, that customize the scam to your location! A email comes to you with headlines such as “Bomb Blast in (your town)” or “At Least 18 Killed (in your city)” and leads to a fake Reuters news service site. Using a familiar ploy, the site then directs you to download the latest version of a flash player so you can see the details. However, instead of a flash player, you get a nice big download of malware.

This reminds us to be suspicious and vigilent. Scam artists are getting very refined in their methods, and some of the attacks are incredibly sophisticated to try to fool you. Don’t let fear keep you from practing the utmost caution when you recieve emails. Always be skeptical of updates to your flash player from third party sites. Go to the website for your player directly to ensure that you have the latest version.

An update to Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center’s Threat Research and Response Blog by Scott Molenkamp the details social networking malware being addressed by Microsoft in their March update to their free Malicious Software Removal Tool.

This is an update regarding the US-CERT alerting us to the Koobface malware, as posted in this blog on March 4th, 2009. The Microsoft Malware Protection Center has noted that the following websites appear to be the focus of this attack:

• bebo.com
• facebook.com
• friendster.com
• fubar.com
• hi5.com
• myspace.com
• myyearbook.com
• netlog.com
• tagged.com

According to Microsoft’s details on the Malicious Software Removal Tool, “The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed…

Because computers can appear to function normally when infected, Microsoft advises you to run this tool even if your computer seems to be fine. You should also use up-to-date antivirus software to help protect your computer from other malicious software. To download the latest version of this tool, please visit the Microsoft Download Center.”

Straight from their alerts page:

added March 4, 2009 at 11:53 am

“US-CERT is aware of public reports of malicious code spreading via popular social networking sites including myspace.com, facebook.com, hi5.com, friendster.com, myyearbook.com, bebo.com, and livejournal.com. The reports indicate that the malware, named Koobface, is spreading through invitations from a user’s contact that include a link to view a video. If the users click on the link in this invitation, they are prompted to update Adobe Flash Player. This update is not a legitimate Adobe Flash Player update, it is malicious code.

Additionally, some of the reports indicate that there are multiple bogus Facebook applications being used to obtain users’ private information.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

• Install antivirus software and keep the virus signature files up to date.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.
• Use caution when downloading and installing applications.
• Obtain software applications and updates directly from the vendor’s website.
• Refer to the Staying Safe on Social Networking Sites document for more information on safe use of social networking sites.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks. “

This is a reminder to us all that while we may trust the websites themselves, the applications available for download or the media shared on these sites are not usually examined for malicious code. Even if you trust the “friend” who sent it to you, that person may not be in control of their own account.

~Rachel James, Intake Specialist

From the IT World

Yet another reason to be wary of information, notices, and applications you receive from social networking sites. A Facebook application is making its way through users by sending a bogus notification that says a friend cannot read your profile. Clicking on the recommended “Error Check System” application results in a trojan that will send the spam to everyone you know, and the same false notification error.

Further, Googling “Error Check System” results in a search page returned that produces a link that will initiate a fake virus scan to try to fool you into installing malware which is disguised as anti-virus software.Even searching for more information about this malware can result in more malware being added to your system.

If you are a user of any of the popular social networks, like Facebook and Myspace, be aware of the risks inherent in sharing certain kinds of personal information in these forums. This bulletin was just released on the US-CERT’s website:

US-CERT is aware of public reports of malware spreading via popular social networking sites. The reports indicate that this malware is spreading through spam email messages appearing to come from Myspace.com, Facebook.com, and Classmates.com. The email contains a message indicating that there is a YouTube video available and instructs the user to follow the link to view the video. If users click on this link, they will be prompted to update Adobe Flash Player. This update is not a legitimate Adobe Flash Player update–it is malicious code.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

• Install antivirus software and keep the virus signatures up to date.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.
• Use caution when downloading and installing applications.
• Obtain software applications and updates directly from the vendor’s website.
• Configure your web browser as described in the Securing Your Web Browser document.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.