Phishing attacks: No one is safe

Users of most of the top email services were targeted in a large-scale phishing attack. First to be hit was Microsoft's Live Hotmail. Microsoft also confirmed that a phishing attack was to blame for the 10,000 Hotmail passwords posted online.

Hotmail, Google and Yahoo! have joined a growing number of email service providers whose users have been duped by hackers into giving over their passwords in phishing attacks.

The British network said it has seen a list of some 20,000 hijacked e-mail accounts that included accounts from Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Comcast and EarthLink. The latter two are major US Internet service providers.

The intrusions, which fool users into giving their details to a dummy website, come amid a sharp rise in the number of phishing attacks. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group some 50,000 mass attacks took place in June 2009, almost double the number recorded in January.

Cyber criminals obtained the passwords by setting up fake websites identical to the main amail services and tricking users into giving their username and password information on the site.

It is widely feared that the stolen information will be used by to access email accounts and steal personal information.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one.

How can internet users avoid falling prey to Phishing scams?

a) A user should not have the same username and password for multiple accounts as once a cyber thief has access to one account, it will be easy for him to access the other accounts.

b) Avoid clicking on weird requests to click on URLs or download software links

c) Get an antivirus software installed for your PC and keep your operating system up-to-date

d) Be on the guard and look out for URLs that divert you to other websites

e) Never follow links in an email claiming to be from your bank. Ignore these types of emails.

f) Adjust you browser settings to tighten up security especially if you use web based email. (Inputs from Agencies)

source: http://in.news.yahoo.com/242/20091008/1360/ttc-phishing-attacks-no-one-is-safe.html