Tag: instant messaging

I’ve just received two attempted attacks of phishing from two of my bloggermates in my Yahoo! Messenger contact list. I guess their accounts are being hacked the time I’ve received those messages, so I want to warn those of you who want to protect your accounts.

For those who do not know, phishing literally means fishing [for passwords], as the letter f is usually replaced by ph in 13375p34k. Another definition could be password harvesting or fishing

There are many methods of phishing attacks, usually through email that, most probably, directly goes to your spam directory [if you have any]. But ones through YM or any other IM accounts that really look like your friends are referring to you to go to are somehow really mind-controlling.

The method I’ve encountered used a spoof of the Yahoo! Photos Web site inside a Yahoo! Geocities Web page requiring you to sign in with your username and password in the attempt to trick you that your friends’ photos are posted post-login. Please take note that Yahoo! Geocities Web pages are user-controlled, meaning other people just made up that Web page.

The two URIs that was given to me was:

• geocities.com/sun.tanner
• geocities.com/hott.six_pack_foru

Apparently, those two sites that were IMed to me were already reported and were taken down. Some may still be out there, [or are currently being made] so please watch out still.

Note: Do NOT enter your login details there.

If you take a look at both the main frames’ source pages (the frames with the sign in page displayed), you will see that the form input will go to a mailform (http://www2.fiberbit.net/form/mailto.cgi) with the same email address input of smoke.beer@gmail.com. (Now, spam that bastard!) It just means that your login information will go to his GMail inbox.

The primary solutions for this is within you. You should basically:

• Never trust login forms inside a frame of user-controlled Web page.
• Try to login directly from the site, with secure (HTTPS) connection if possible. (e.g., Yahoo! Login, Google Accounts)
• Never trust friends’ URI referrals unless you really know the site or have checked for security flaws/issues.

I know I haven’t fully discussed what could be done to prevent such intrusions to your accounts, you might even want to change your passwords regularly. Just remember to be aware of such possibilities when visiting untrusted Web sites. Or else, you may be giving them permission to hack you.

More about Phishing:

• URL spoofing and phishing on the Spoofing attack Wikipedia article
• Phishing Wikipedia article