There truly is one born every minute, and in the maverick world of the Internet, perhaps there`s one born every nanosecond. That`s the conclusion I must reach after reviewing a list of the 10 scams most often perpetrated on the Internet. In order, they are:
- Internet auction fraud: Goods ordered, paid for, never despatched.
- Internet service provider scams.
- Web site design/promotions: Web cramming.
- Internet information and adult services: Credit card cramming.
- Multi-level marketing/pyramid scams.
- Business opportunities and work-at-home scams: Promises of huge earnings which never appear.
- Investment schemes and get-rich-quick scams.
- Travel/vacation fraud: Offers of luxury accommodation that don`t materialise.
- Telephone/pay-per-call solicitation fraud (including modem diallers and videotext).
- Healthcare fraud.
The very nature of the Internet makes it easy for cyber criminals to disappear and evade the long arm of the law.
Ian Melamed, chief technology officer, SatelliteSafe
What`s amazing, given the above list, drawn up courtesy of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US, is that every one of them is being perpetrated across SA right now. As you drive around your city - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban - you`ll see the number of posters that offer these services and products.
These posters have been up for years now, so someone must be responding to them. It`s typically people who are battling financially and are receptive to get-rich quick scams (remember the recent Soweto pyramid scheme?).
Now the FTC is spearheading a joint task force targeting these 10 scams. It has enlisted the services of four other US agencies, 23 states, and consumer protection groups from nine countries.
The group has brought 251 actions against accused online scammers, but that`s a drop in the ocean compared to the 285 000 consumer complaints the FTC has received.
The very nature of the Internet makes it easy for cyber criminals to disappear and evade the long arm of the law. The big problem, though, is that these schemers are undermining the valid proposition of e-business. After all, do you have the time or the inclination to run background checks on every company with which you have dealings?
A vulnerability has been found in Microsoft Exchange Server that can allow a single, corrupt e-mail message to trash the server. Microsoft has released a patch. A malicious user can use the bug to send an e-mail message with invalid data in the header that would cause Exchange Server to crash. There are 58 million seats of Exchange in use. Rush out and get the patch at http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/Release.asp?ReleaseID=25443.
Science fiction becomes science fact. Scientists believe they may have produced the ultimate security solution by applying the arcane and impossibly hi-tech science of quantum mechanics to the problem. They`re looking to use it to produce unbreakable cryptography. Here`s the logic: the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle specifies that it is impossible to know a particle`s position and its momentum simultaneously. By applying this principle - in effect operating at sub-molecular level - scientists hope to deliver an unbreakable symmetric cryptosystem. Crazy? Hardly. The first proof-of-concept applications are appearing.
Just had to happen. In between the extraordinary soap opera that the US elections have become, the Republican Party`s main Web site, gop.org, was vandalised. The replacement text slammed George W Bush and pleaded for voters to pick Gore as their man. The Web site has since been repaired.
Guilty as charged - that`s Shadow Knight and Mafia Boy, who have entered guilty pleas for two high-profile cyber attacks. Jason Allen Diekman (Shadow Knight) could go to jail for 16 years for his repeated break-ins at Nasa; and Mafia Boy has pleaded guilty to most of the 66 charges brought against him for the denial-of-service attacks he launched against CNN, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay in February.
Quote of the week has to go to August Hanning, head of Germany`s intelligence service: "Computer systems are increasingly becoming the largest of international cyber warfare waged between states. States are using computer viruses or other destructive techniques to cripple the information systems of other countries."
Sources: ZDNet, Reuters, Silicon.com and Computerwire.
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