Diversity MBA Magazine - Summer 2008 - (Page 94)

Gone Phishing How Scammers Mine Private Data From Web Surfers by Robert S. Anthony 94 You know it’s going to be a bad day when you arrive at the office one Friday and find your employees standing outside with their arms folded. Their paychecks bounced. Your company’s bank account was raided. How could this happen? Unfortunately it’s easier than you might think. With a few computer mouse clicks, you or your colleagues can give away enough private information for an identity thief to hack into your company’s bank account or steal other sensitive company data. There’s a distinct danger to casual clicking. Not only can you end up at the wrong Web site, but once there, the site may try to install malicious software. Some sites have been known to install keystroke loggers -- tiny applications that copy every subsequent keystroke you make, passwords and all, and send them to a hacker somewhere in cyberspace. A big part of the data-theft problem is a simple ruse called phishing, the black art of creating fake e-mail messages that look like legitimate ones. The bad ones are easy to spot: They’re laden with awful spelling, poor grammar, and amateurish graphics and logos. Your PC’s delete key can take care of them. Unfortunately, however, some phishers have become very sophisticated and can now create e-mails that are dead ringers for the real things. Even sharp-eyed PC veterans can be fooled. And there’s more bad news: Data thieves no longer have to be computer experts. Even the greenest computer novice can get into phishing thanks to ready-made kits, complete with perfect templates for creating bogus e-mail from major financial institutions, which are available for downloading on the Web. According to Mark Monitor, a San Franciscobased brand-protection services company, a group known as the Rock Phish Gang is responsible for creating many of these illicit toolkits and can take credit for a significant portion of the world’s phishing traffic. Even when a rogue Web site is tracked to a particular computer, the hackers can easily close up shop, retreat into the black hole of cyberspace and resurface elsewhere with a new site, but the same old scam game. Everywhere And Anywhere The battle against phishing is international. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (www.antiphishing.org), a consortium of 3,000 members from 1,700 companies, keeps an eye on where the phishing e-mails are w w w. d ive r s it y mb a ma g a z in e. c o m http://www.antiphishing.org http://www.diversitymbamagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Diversity MBA Magazine - Summer 2008

Diversity MBA Magazine - Summer 2008 Contents Letters to the Editor In Your Own Hands Editor's View Find Your Power Voice Business Briefs Off the Shelf The Fourth Annual Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Corporate Executives Negotiation: The Art of Persuasion or Zero Sum Game? Career Planning for Tomorrow's Hispanic Workforce Who's Who In Diversity Entrepreneur Profile: Anita Santiago: Doing It Her Way Businesses that Keep On Giving Rising Sun Going Global: Will An International Assignment Benefit Your Career Work-Life Balance and the C-Suite: An Oxymoron? A Call to Save Travel: Off the Beaten Path - Chile Drawing the Line – Latin Art Exhibit The New Taste of Latin Cuisine American Sabor: Exhibit Highlights Latino Influence in Pop Music Crafting Specialized Business Degrees Latest MBA Salary Suggests MBA Is A Safe Haven Gadgets & Gizmos Gone Phishing – How Scammers Mine Private Data From Web Surfers Advertiser's Index The Meaning of Sanctuary

Diversity MBA Magazine - Summer 2008

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