iPhone Password Flaw

The current version of the iPhone has a little security flaw. The password feature that’s built into the device can be easily bypassed by following a few steps. Apple has confirmed the problem and promised to fix it in September.

This affects iPhones version 2.0.2 (the ones available today).

Here’s how it works:

  1. Password protect the phone and lock it
  2. Slide to unlock it
  3. Tap the emergency call button
  4. Double tap the home button

Done, anyone can now access the favourites list in the phone, the full address book, and dial any number including voicemail. It also lets anyone see private information stored against a contact, full access to the email client, and they can gain access to the Safari web browser (if there’s a web address stored against a contact).

For iPhone owners there’s a way to prevent this from happening, protecting the phone from being used if it’s lost while locked:

  1. Go to the Home page on the iPhone
  2. Go to Settings
  3. Click on General
  4. Click on the Home button
  5. Click on either Home or iPod
August 30, 2008 | Filed Under Security | Leave a Comment 

Space Station Gets A Virus

It’s interesting to see that even the most technologically sophisticated environments face the same challenges as the rest of us. Some computers aboard the international space station (ISS) have been infected with a worm (called W32.Gammima.AG). And it’s not the first time this has happened.

Not the actual ISS In this particular case there’s no threat to their operations, but it’s interesting to see how some of the best engineers in the world let this slip through. The theory at the moment is that it was transferred from a crew member’s personal compact flash card.

It’s also interesting to note that the computers on board do not have virus protection, and that it’s believed it spread from one computer to at least another one.

Lessons to be learnt?

  1. Use a good anti-virus package. It’s not good enough to be extra careful, you need the best tools working in the background keeping watch.
  2. Be aware that flash cards (the kind cameras use) can carry malware. You just have to be careful who’s computer you put it into. We’ve even seen brand new devices ship with infected memory cards.
August 28, 2008 | Filed Under Malware, News/Media | Leave a Comment 

Server Upgrade

I’ve done two upgrades tonight, if anything looks wrong please send me an email, http://fraudo.com/support/contact/

There are now over 200 articles on FraudO.com. My goal is still to help you protect yourself from falling victim to scams, fraud, viruses, etc. The best thing you can do is subscribe to the FraudO email (type your email address into the top right of this page), or if you’re more net savvy use an RSS reader. Otherwise just remember to read this site every few days.

August 28, 2008 | Filed Under Admin | Leave a Comment 

Western Union Emails

The following email pretends to be from Western Union. It contains an attachment and the body of the email asks readers to open the attachment.

The attachment is malware. This is another malicious email that uses a creative story to trick people into opening an attachment and letting a malicious program install itself. Don’t fall for it.

Below is an extract of the email:

Hello!

Attention! The wire sent to Kiril Fadeev, Moscow, Russia has been blocked by our security service.

Your credit card issuing bank has halted the transaction by the demand of the Federal Criminal Investigation Service (case No. 43125 since the recipient has been undergoing the international retrieval by the InterPol.

Please contact the closest Western Union office and make sure you have your ID card, the credit card that was used for making the payment, and the invoice file with you.

(The invoice file is attached to this message; please print it out and hand it to our agent.)

You can find the address of the closest Western Union agent on our website at http://www.westernunion.com

Thank you!

Just delete and ignore these emails.

August 26, 2008 | Filed Under Fraud, Malware, Scams | 9 Comments 

Fake FBI Email

Here’s a scam email claiming to be from the FBI. There are at least two things wrong with this email:

Below is a copy of the scam email (to help Google index this page and in turn help people find out about the scam):

CYBER WIRETAP AND FUNDS RECOVERY DEPARTMENT,
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI.
J.EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE,
NW WASHINGTON, D.C
20535-0001, USA .
WEB-PAGE: www.fbi.org

Kind Attention,

We believe this notification meets you in a very good state of mind and health. The FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) Washington, D.C United States of America in conjunction with some other relevant Investigative Agencies here in the USA have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you have a pending FUND transaction with a Bank regarding to an over-due Inheritance / Award payment which was fully endorsed to be paid in your favor.It might interest you to know that we have taken out time in screening through this whole transaction as stipulated on our protocol of operation and have finally confirmed that BARCLAYS BANK PLC, is the authorized financial institution scheduled to make your payment in line with their remittance requirements. Several investigations by us have shown that you have been dealing with some unauthorized persons and banks regarding the transfer of these funds to your bank account.

Our UK attachee agent recently had a meeting with the Manager of BARCLAYS BANK PLC, in the person of MR. NAIL WIHTE along with some other top officials of BARCLAYS BANK PLC, regarding your case and they made us to understand that your file has been held in abase pending when you personally file for your claims. They intimated him that the only problem they are facing right now is that some unscrupulous element are using this project as an avenue to scam innocent people off their hard earned money by impersonating to be STAFF OF BANKS and its affiliates.

We were also made to understand that a lady with name Mrs. Joan C. Bailey from Ohio, United Of America has already contacted them and also presented to them all the necessary documentations evidencing your claim purported to have been signed personally by you prior to the release of your funds to her, though they insisted on hearing from you personally before they could go ahead on wiring the funds to the Bank information provided by the above named Lady. It is basically one of the main reasons why they contacted us, to enable us assist them in carrying out proper investigation and subsequently informing you of their mandate to Remitting your funds.

Most importnatly, We advise that you discontinue further dealings with any person or organization posing as staff or affiliate of any bank or agency concerning the transfer of your funds. In your own interest, You are advised to immediately contact BARCLAYS BANK PLC, LONDON on the following details for the onward remittance of your funds.

CONTACT PERSON : MR. NAIL WHITE.
ADDRESS: P. O. BOX 738, Eagle Court 75 King Street,
Hammersmith London, W6 9HY, U. K.
Direct Tel: +447024062992
EMAIL: barclays_live_20@live.com
Official Website: www.barclaysbank.co.uk

Ensure that you comply to all their remittance procedures and also furnish them with your full details (Full names and address, direct telephone and fax numbers, source of funds,Expected Amount, etc) to enable them in their verification processes before the release of your funds.

Best Regards,
Agent Lavine F. Ferdon.
FBI Special Agent.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Washington DC, USA.
WEB: www.fbi.org.

Delete and ignore any emails you receive like this.

August 20, 2008 | Filed Under Fraud, Scams, hoax | 4 Comments 

Clipboard Attacks

There’s a new bit of malware that attacks your computer’s clipboard. Here’s how it works:

It’s difficult to stop it once it’s started, usually until you restart your browser, or in some cases until you restart your PC. Copying something else into the clipboard doesn’t work, the malware will continually overwrite your clipboard.

Who does this affect?

Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux users, using Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. That includes pretty much everyone.

At the moment it’s only been shown in a proof of concept demo (i.e. it’s not a major threat today). But as usual it’s only a matter of days until it’s put to bad use and this is used to trick people into going to dangerous web sites.

What can you do about it?

August 20, 2008 | Filed Under Malware | Leave a Comment 

ZoneAlarm ForceField Free - 1 Day Only - Expired

ZoneAlarm has been making security products for a number of years and they have a good reputation. I don’t have the resources to review or evaluate security products so I tend not to make specific recommendations (but I do recommend that you should invest in a good antivirus package).

For one day only ZoneAlarm has made their ForceField product free to use for one year. It blocks phishing sites (this is a good thing), blocks keyloggers, and has a host of other interesting security features.

If you don’t already have a security package that does everything (and why not?) then try this one out. As I said, ZoneAlarm has a good reputation for this kind of thing and “free” is a good price. Note that they ask for your name and email address.

Link: http://download.zonealarm.com/bin/free/sum/index.html - click on the red button.

More info about ForceField here.

Update: This offer has expired. Good computer security is very important (read some of the pages on this site to find out why) and it’s definitely worth paying for good software that keeps you safe. You should be using a package that constantly scans your PC for malware (viruses, trojans, etc), scans all web pages and updates itself daily. It’s a very good investment.

August 13, 2008 | Filed Under Antivirus, Security, Software | Leave a Comment 

New Wave of Malicious Spam

Here’s a summary of the recent wave of malicious emails arriving in people’s inboxes. Delete any email like the following:

  1. An email offering a link to download a Yahoo Messenger update. It’s full of interesting words like “yahoo messenger ultimate version“. The link will download a couple of viruses.
  2. Olympics - there’s a lot of emails being sent promising something to do with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. As a rule of thumb whenever there’s a large event on malicious emails abound.
  3. CNN - there have been so many CNN themed spam emails lately. They contain subjects such as “Daily Top 10” or “My Custom Alert“. If you click on any link it asks you to install an Adobe Flash update. What it actually does is install malware.
  4. Brangelina’s Twins - I admit I had to look up what Brangelina means (hint, Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt). News about celebrities sent by email is almost always spam, and in this case it contains a trojan.
  5. e-cards or e-postcards - if an email with a link to an online postcard asks you to download “postcard.exe” then click cancel and delete it. Postcard.exe is a pretty bad trojan.

mailbox

August 12, 2008 | Filed Under Malware | Leave a Comment 

Fake Anti-Spyware Tools

Trend Micro make some good anti-virus and anti-spyware tools. One of their tools is called iClean. Unfortunately someone has created a fake copy of one of their websites that will install malicious code on your computer (in this case they’ve copied the Taiwan version of their site).

So which is the real one and which are the fake ones?

Real Trend Micro Site:

Fake (malicious) sites:

These tips will help you avoid this problem, and similar threats:

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Malware, Security, Software | Leave a Comment 

Virus Email combines Facebook, Terrorists, and FBI

Virus writers have been sending emails with a story that use the following words, hoping to get people interested enough to click on the links:

The exact story they came up with doesn’t really matter. If you click on the link it tries to download a file called fbi_facebook.exe. This is the part that installs the virus on your PC.

Always be wary of sensational stories arriving by email (they’re almost always malicious). And be extremely wary of any links that try to download something that ends with .exe

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Malware, Security | Leave a Comment 

Fake Olympics Tickets Site

There’s a report that the web site www.beijingticketing.com is a scam. The website has been selling tickets for the Beijing Olympics and has failed to actually deliver anything. Quite a few people have lost large amounts of money buying tickets on this site.

Another website that was recently shut down for a similar scam is www.beijing-tickets2008.com

Read the full article here.

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Fraud, Scams | Leave a Comment