Beware of Haiti-Themed Scams and Attacks!
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the tragedy in Haiti. To make matters worse, as is often the case with any incident that captures the attention of the multitudes, cyber-crooks are doing all they can to take advantage of the unsuspecting web browser looking for information of ways to help.
There are a large number of domains being registered and parked relating to the disaster. Not all of these are malicious naturally however if we learned anything from Hurricane Katrina, this is a precedent to cynical scams attempted to exploit the generosity of the unsuspecting. Scammers use a variety of means to drive traffic including promoting on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, paid advertising, and search engine manipulation. Security Research Firm Websense reported that search terms relating to the earthquake are leading to a rouge anti-virus program. Since you should already have anti-virus software installed, updated and running on your computer, cancel out of any suspicious alerts and run a scan using your own anti-virus software. A video demonstrating search engine manipulation can be found here. Once on the site, attackers may also tempt users to download malware in the guise of video reports about the disaster.
Those looking to make donations will be well-advised to go directly to the web site of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The FBI has also posted an alert warning of possible charity donation scams. The IRS also maintain a list of tax exempt charitable organizations. This can serve as a check as well.
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William J McBorrough is a Security Expert with many years of success Managing, Designing, and Implementing medium and large enterprise Physical and Information Technology Security Solutions. His experience spans the spectrum from small e-commerce start-ups to multi-campus state and federal agencies to global financial sector organizations. He is on the faculty of various universities including University of Maryland University College, EC-Council University, George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College where he conducts research and teach graduate and undergraduate courses relating to cybersecurity, cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and information security and assurance. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computing Engineering with a concentration in digital networks and a Masters of Science in Information Security and Assurance. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified in Risk Information System Control (CRISC), and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).He is well versed in personnel, systems and network security risk management. His core competencies include Developing cost effective solutions to enable mission assurance in the following areas: Enterprise Risk Management, IT Governance, Security Organization Development, Information Security and Assurance
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Great post William. It's a terrible shame that it is necessary to be cautious when responding to pleas for help, but we should be mindful that in today's society there are those who have sunk so low as to take advantage of people's generosity in the wake of such destruction and loss. The FBI wasted no time in advising people to exercise caution when responding to e-mail requests for help.
Quite Right, John. In the middle of my class tonight I received one such email and took the opportunity to advise my students of the dangers you mentioned. Thanks for the comment.