Reports from IT security vendor PandaLabs indicate a new variation of an old theme. A group of cybercrooks was offering their hacking services on Facebook. For a reported $100, a potential hacker could purchase information how to hack a specific Facebook account. But it looks like the purchase is a bogus one, and potential hackers are scammed. It’s a new variation on the effective social engineering tactic – this time aimed to scam the scammer. Criminal hackers keep on finding new w... [More]

Norton (from Symantec) has launched a new online tool on its EveryClickMatters-website. It asks for some basic personal information as well as about online behavior (e.g., paying bills online, file sharing on P2P networks, etc.) It then calculates the potential value of this participant's identity on the black market. It sounds like a fun exercise, but most Internet users could be unpleasantly surprised, if not shocked, to find out how high the value of their ID could be for cybercriminals. It'... [More]

Michael Cobb, a contributor to SearchSecurity.com, makes the point that the factors driving the success of social networking sites like Twitter are the same elements of human behaviour that drive social engineering attacks, namely "a natural desire and willingness to share and engage with those we trust." He further advices that a corporate Twitter policy could combat social network threats. Social engineering is a well-known technique widely used in phishing attacks. One of the industry's most... [More]

Cross-site scripting (XSS) flaws have been a thorn in the side of website developers - and users of the Internet - for some time. As we have been reporting in our Finjan MCRC blog, XSS-flaws are a recurring problem. It is highly unlikely that they will go away in the near future. In this light, it is therefore quite unsettling to hear that, apart from websites being vulnerable to XSS flaws, O2 is now facing an XSS-security problem with its Wireless Box III. O2, already well established in cont... [More]

Reports from India, which suggest that the subcontinent could potentially become a hub of cybercrime, concern all Internet users. The reason is simple – we all live in the same global Internet village. According to Mr Herald D'Costa, director of the Indian IT security firm Intelligent Quotient, 97 % of Indian Internet users are unaware of IT security issues. With the majority of the population using Internet cafes, this comes is disconcerting. Cybercriminals active in India now have the ... [More]