Spam Scam Says You're Fired
from the well-that-sucks dept
In the last year or so, the concept of "spear phishing" has gained a lot of popularity. Rather than broadly phishing by sending out emails pretending to be from companies with huge numbers of users/customers such as eBay or Citibank, spear phishing is much more targeted, and sometimes much more devious. It is often sent directly to people at a certain organization, made to look like it comes from someone at that organization and designed to play on what that organization does. It seems that some phishing scammers went one step further last week, using a spear phishing attack on employees of the Dekalb Medical Center. The email itself appeared to come from the medical center and told the employees they were being laid off. It included a link to a website supposedly for "career-counseling information," but actually directing people to a website that automatically downloaded a keylogger program. Enough employees were freaked out enough by the notice that they didn't consider it might be a scam, and clicked on the link. Once again, it shows how the scammers continue to adjust and adapt, and how difficult it can be to spot some of these types of scams.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What would Jesus do?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I predict...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Well maybe the text message termination will go aw
If this story could catch on, and it seems like just the scary thing news shows want these days, then companies will have to grow spines and create policies that require them to fire someone face to face.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Crying
[ link to this | view in thread ]
You're Fired!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: I predict...
Just because end-users are STILL too dumb to filter their email does not mean that legislation is required or warranted. Education is required.
How about this as a radical idea. Make spreading email viruses prosecutable. Anyone stupid (read negligent) enough to spread a worm or virus can be held accountable for that action. If you take the proper precautions, you will be fine.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tuff Luv
Two choices:
a) people who click a link from unknown or "potentially unlikely" senders and thus get violated should have no legal recourse at all. You get what you pay for, and if they're not going to educate themselves or use (forbid) COMMON SENSE, then they have to live with it.
b) stop using a pc
Next, find someone who can trace the link to a server/ISP, interrogate for the creator/owner/maintainer/billpayer, and arrest them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
IQ Testing
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Spam detection
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Spam detection
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: I predict...
Yes, better education should be given to the masses but that's not necessarily going to happen even though it should.
spreading email viruses is ALREADY prosecutable and plenty of individuals have been convicted for malicious intent after doing just that so your "radical idea" seems radically in the dark.
Look at the educational state and laziness of people in this country and tell me that they'll vote for better education over government regulation - please. I highly doubt the majority of the sheeple in this country will bother to do what's good for them since they all need to be spoon fed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Phishing Attacks
They get very annoying, but seriously people, you need to become educated and well aware of these attacks. They are costing our county big time!
[ link to this | view in thread ]