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Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

Phish Hosted for Free

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Since March 2010, and especially this month, the MarkMonitor Security Operations Center (SOC) has noticed a significant increase in the use of free web hosting services for phishing and malware attacks.  Cybercriminals are using free hosting services to either host the phishing and malware sites themselves or redirect to fast-flux ...

New Monthly Fraud Intelligence Report Now Available

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Beginning this month, MarkMonitor will be sharing a new, monthly Fraud Intelligence Report with customers and other interested parties in our blog. The goal of the report is to provide timely analysis of developing trends and new threats in the fraud landscape. The Fraud Intelligence Report will complement the current ...

DNS…Wait a SEC

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is a set of specifications designed to prevent hackers from intercepting DNS queries and redirecting end users to spoofed sites through a technique known as Cache Poisoning. Complete DNSSEC implementation requires that domains are authenticated at the root by the Registry, and that DNS ...

It Is There for a Reason, So Why Not Use It?

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

It seems like every week, news of yet another high-profile domain hijacking occurs. Whether it’s stolen credentials, SQL injection attacks, or even the work of disgruntled employees, the number of incidents has been on the rise.  At the beginning of last year, MarkMonitor participated in VeriSign’s beta program to test server-level ...

Smart Phishing for Smartphones

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

A common security prediction for 2010 is the continued rise of malware and phishing attacks on mobile phones. The MarkMonitor SOC recently detected an interesting twist on this theme involving a popular smartphone and the latest smart technologies used by cybercriminals. In this case, instead of compromising a smartphone to ...

Avalanche Fast-flux and Blended Attacks

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated with the use of fast-flux botnets as resilient attack platforms. The fast-fluxing among hundreds of compromised computers which serve as proxies for phishing sites means that detection and shutdown become more difficult. One particular fast-flux botnet called Avalanche has received much attention in recent months ...

Open Phishing Season

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

For retailers and consumers, Cyber Monday marked the beginning of the online holiday shopping season. For cybercriminals, however, it marked the opening of their winter phishing season. Here at MarkMonitor, we are currently seeing an uptick in cybercriminal activity targeting online retailers’ brands. Linked here is an example of a phish attack ...

Open Enrollment = Open Season for Scammers

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

You have to give scammers credit, as they are a creative bunch.  While most of us think of the annual open enrollment period for employee benefits as a non-event, scammers see it as an opportunity.   Just last month we’ve seen suspicious sites targeting employees of some of the largest corporations.  In ...

2009 Domain Name Year In Review

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

To say that it’s been quite a year in the world of domain names would be an understatement. From compromised ccTLD registries, to the delay of new gTLDs, some of the events of the past year have been surprising, while others could easily have been predicted.   Regardless of whether you could ...

SEO Poisoning: A Persistent Malware Threat Targeting High-Profile Brands

Friday, October 16th, 2009

It’s bad enough that malware is virally spread via paid search and social networking links.  But now there are more accounts of it being spread via natural search links as well.  In a practice called “SEO Poisoning,” fraudsters use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to mix malware-laden search results with ...