Internet scams get more creative to bypass security features
By Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 09 September 2007 1743 hrs

SINGAPORE: Despite new security features, hackers and spammers are still finding creative, sophisticated ways (Creative, sophisticated ways. Don't forget this. This is what they claimed in their opening paragraph. Let's read on.) to cause massive problems to computer systems.

In fact, observers have noticed that the brightest minds in information technology are being recruited by organised cyber gangs.

Chee Heng Loon, VP of Asia-Pacific, Sonicwall, said: "If end-users are not hiring them, if we are not hiring them, then where did all these people disappear to? The only conclusion we can come to is that a huge organisation out there is sucking out all of the skill sets and we believe they are the guys who are behind all the spamming and phishing attacks." (What kind of bullshit reasoning is this? I mean seriously...)

Nonetheless, one can still sniff out a scam by taking cues from the use of generic greeting in a scam email or when the link and the URL in the status bar do not match.

Industry watchers said it is getting easier and cheaper for hackers to launch attacks on organisations.

First, they use an email generator, which is easily available on the Internet, to produce billions of accurate employee email addresses.

Next, a "proper and official-looking" email is drawn up to ask for one's credit card number and other personal information. (Oh, this is "creative and sophisticated"? This has been around for ages, and most people don't fall for this.)

In order to send billions of such emails worldwide, scammers need powerful servers and bandwidth.

Such illegal services are highly sought after by cyber gangs in Eastern Europe as well as in China.

These "Internet mafias" can provide powerful servers and bandwidth for as low as US$300 to US$700 per hour.

A recent European survey showed that one-third of office workers shared the same password for both work and personal access.

More alarmingly, 71 per cent said they would give up their password for a bar of chocolate. (Taken out of context, I'm sure.)