GMA News warned the public last week regarding a fake site that reports fake news, which has fortunately been taken down as of press time. This reminds me of the recent fake news item about Megan Fox being a man. If anyone actually checked that site’s menu, they’d see links to a “Mutants” section and an “Aliens” section, which should readily warn anyone about the veracity of news on that site. Unfortunately some educated people believed that piece of news, which is really quite sad.
CSOOnline came out with an article detailing the Dirty Tricks: Social Engineers’ Favorite Pick-Up Lines, which are divided as Social Networking Scams, Office Offenses and Phishing Lures:
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Social Networking Scams
“I’m traveling in London and I’ve lost my wallet. Can you wire some money?”
“Someone has a secret crush on you! Download this application to find who it is!”
“Did you see this video of you? Check out this link!”
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Office Offenses
“Hi, I’m from the rep from Cisco and I’m here to see Nancy.”
“This is Chris from tech services. I’ve been notified of an infection on your computer.”
“Can you hold the door for me? I don’t have my key/access card on me.”
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Phishing Lures
“You have not paid for the item you recently won on eBay. Please click here to pay.”
“You’ve been let go. Click here to register for severance pay. “
Check out the site link above for more details.
The same author, Joan Goodchild, also wrote about Social Engineering:8 Common Tactics, and 3 Ways a Twitter Hack can Hurt You, which might interest you if you want to learn more about Social Engineering.
Tips
If in case you aren’t using encryption yet and want an easy and free encryption solution, you may want to check out TrueCrypt. Tom’s Hardware has published a how to and review to start you out.
Auditing
A consortium of US agencies and organizations released a draft of the Consensus Audit Guidelines that define the 20 most critical security controls to protect federal and contractor information systems.
The press release states that: “The CAG initiative is part of a larger effort housed at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC to advance key recommendations from the CSIS Commission report on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency.”
Other Security News
(The Register) New OS X research warns of stealthier Mac attacks
(The Register) Banking app vuln surfaces 18 months after discovery
(The Register) Hacker pokes new hole in secure sockets layer
(PCWorld) New Attacks Target IE7 Flaw
(PCWorld) IE8 Focuses on Improved Security and Privacy
(PCWorld) Microsoft Adds Clickjacking Protection to IE8 RC1
(PCWorld) Downloads for Hard Economic Times
InfoSec Philippines 