Latest Phishing Scam

BBC News has reported that over 30,000 email addresses and their passwords have been posted online over the past few days, and that number is growing. The information was obtained via a phishing scam, which incorporates the use of fake websites to lure unsuspecting customers into divulging sensitive information, in this case, names and passwords for their email accounts. The first reports believed that only Hotmail user accounts were published, but now it has been confirmed that other providers, including Comcast, Earthlink, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and others are included. Some of the email accounts appear to be old, unused or fake, but many are genuine. Since the issue was publicized, the website on which this information was posted was temporarily down while changes were made and filters were implemented to prevent this issue from reoccurring.

Now is a better time than ever to take a lesson from this scam by changing passwords, keeping antivirus software up to date, and being extra careful when clicking on links within email messages, even with trusted sources in your contacts, as their accounts may have been affected by the scam. If you are still leery about clicking on a link, it’s not a bad idea to verify with the email sender that they sent you the link before clicking on it, and be cautious about entering sensitive information afterwards. Contact Orbis today if you have any questions about antivirus software.

Sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8292299.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8294714.stm