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Cyberextortion
Dec. 16th, 2006 01:18 pmI have been following a thread on a geek mailing list that I want to bring to your awareness. I started with a member posting this article from CNET. Reading it sent a chill through my spine. I have verified it - it's quite real.
" After visiting a cybercafe, a Hotmail user returned to find the Web mail account empty except for a note demanding payment for the return of the messages and address book, a security firm said Monday.
The affected person had accessed the Hotmail e-mail account from an unspecified Internet cafe in Mexico, said Dan Hubbard, senior director of Websense Security Labs in San Diego."
The article goes on to say that there was only one message left in the inbox, a poorly- worded note in Spanish that read, when translated, "If you want to know where your contacts and your e-mails are then pay us or if you prefer to lose everything then don't write soon!"
Websense believes that cybercafes are increasingly becoming targets of such attacks, which involve using a keystroke logger. They then log into your account using your password and execute their attack. Websense recommends changing passwords frequently.
The mailing list I have been monitoring is inhabited by sysadmins and internet security experts. Here are their suggestions:
-The least expensive option would be to carry a novel or download one to your handheld from Project Gutenberg for a script change the password each time you logged on. As a sanity check, you could have a website page to check that would tell you which page in your codebook to use as you then went to check your email.
-For businesses, they gave highest marks to RSA Security products. These are fobs about the size of a credit card. They sell them in small quantities for about $50 each. They also have LINUX compatible plugins.
The basic tech used is a long-sequence 'random' number generator. The number changes every minute. The authorizing agent must consider 'time skew' since the fobs timekeeper is likely to be not as precise as 'true' time. The authorizing agent needs to search the possible keys for a few minutes on either side of the entered number to see if it falls into a 'reasonable' place. If so, it resets its information about where the
fobs timestamp must be.
Be safe!
" After visiting a cybercafe, a Hotmail user returned to find the Web mail account empty except for a note demanding payment for the return of the messages and address book, a security firm said Monday.
The affected person had accessed the Hotmail e-mail account from an unspecified Internet cafe in Mexico, said Dan Hubbard, senior director of Websense Security Labs in San Diego."
The article goes on to say that there was only one message left in the inbox, a poorly- worded note in Spanish that read, when translated, "If you want to know where your contacts and your e-mails are then pay us or if you prefer to lose everything then don't write soon!"
Websense believes that cybercafes are increasingly becoming targets of such attacks, which involve using a keystroke logger. They then log into your account using your password and execute their attack. Websense recommends changing passwords frequently.
The mailing list I have been monitoring is inhabited by sysadmins and internet security experts. Here are their suggestions:
-The least expensive option would be to carry a novel or download one to your handheld from Project Gutenberg for a script change the password each time you logged on. As a sanity check, you could have a website page to check that would tell you which page in your codebook to use as you then went to check your email.
-For businesses, they gave highest marks to RSA Security products. These are fobs about the size of a credit card. They sell them in small quantities for about $50 each. They also have LINUX compatible plugins.
The basic tech used is a long-sequence 'random' number generator. The number changes every minute. The authorizing agent must consider 'time skew' since the fobs timekeeper is likely to be not as precise as 'true' time. The authorizing agent needs to search the possible keys for a few minutes on either side of the entered number to see if it falls into a 'reasonable' place. If so, it resets its information about where the
fobs timestamp must be.
Be safe!
