[pchelpers] Article:Fear, greed, and lust: Phishing's sure-fire lures

By Rafael Ruffolo - ComputerWorld Canada

TORONTO (06/27/2007) - IT professionals may want to give their staff a
refresher course on phishing attacks. 

In a recent study, McAfee outlined the increasingly persuasive nature of
phish attacks and the psychological "mind games" that cybercriminals use
to trick their prey. The study said scammers play up to users' emotions,
using fear, greed and lust to ultimately steal personal and proprietary
financial information. McAfee found the most important key to an
Internet scammers' success is creating the illusion of legitimacy and
familiarity. 

"The technique we've seen the most is mimicking another organization's
e-mail," Jean Pascal Hebert, an account manager at McAfee, said.
"Typically these are the most successful types of attack and can entice
an individual to release information they should not be releasing." 

Hebert said that more education is needed to combat these sophisticated
attacks, but some security experts say this will take a major change in
the training process to succeed. 

More here:
http://technology.canoe.ca/PCWorld/2007/05/10/4169028.html
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John Durham
Site http://modecideas.com
Server hosted on Ubuntu 4.10
Good advice is like good paint. It only works when applied.



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