Phishing, Pharming, and Spam

1
Phishing, Pharming, and Spam

• What are they and how can you protect yourself
  from them?

2
Phishing

• The act of sending an e-mail to a user
  falsely claiming to be an established legitimate
  enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into
  surrendering private information that will be
  used for identity theft.
• http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/phishing.html

3
Phishing Example

• Here the user is sent an e-mail that appears
  to be from a bank. The website looks legitimate
  (see 1) but it is really masked to take you to
  website 2 and steal your financial information.
• http//www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phi
  shing.mspx

4
Pharming

• Pharming seeks to obtain person or private
  (usually financial) information by redirecting a
  user to a fake web site that impersonates a
  legitimate web site. Even if the user correctly
  enters a URL (web address) into a browser's
  address bar, the attacker can still redirect the
  user to a scam web site.
• http//www.pharming.org/index.jsp
  http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/pharming.html

5
How Pharming Differs from Phishing

• Pharming makes use of the DNS (Domain Name
  Servers). Scammers can either change the DNS
  record or take down the DNS system all together.
• Unlike phishing, a user can enter the URL
  correctly and once on the site the user is
  redirected to a scam site. It will appear like
  the user is still at the correct URL.
• Pharming allows scammers to target large groups
  of people at one time rather than scamming one
  person at a time by e-mail.
• http//reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5670780-1.html

6
Spam

• Unsolicited junk mail, and those annoying
  advertisements that pop up on the internet.
• Approximately half of all e-mail is bulk
  unsolicited e-mail aka spam. AOLs 35 million
  customers receive 2 billion spam messages a day.
• Long and Long Complete Computers. Chapter 7.
  p.281.

7
How to Protect Yourself from Phishing, Pharming
and Spam

• Buy or download anti-spam, phishing or pharming
  ware such as McAfee, companies suggested on the
  Microsoft website, or other such companies that
  provide those services.
• If you receive an e-mail asking for personal
  information, do not give it.
• Make sure that you are on a secure site when
  giving out financial or private information.