"Pharming"- Phishing's Latest Mutation - Alert!-

[Grrilla]

A new security problem to watch out for, involving re-directs:


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/31/pharming/
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,120268,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp

A new round of so-called "pharming" attacks is targeting the .com Internet domain, redirecting some Internet users who are looking for .com Web sites to Web pages controlled by the unknown attackers.
The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center (ISC) issued a warning this week about the new attacks, which corrupt some DNS (domain name system) servers so that requests for .com sites sent to those servers connect users instead to Web sites maintained by the attackers. News of the new attacks comes amid increasing reports of pharming scams, and statistics that show at least 1300 Internet domains were redirected to compromised Web servers in a similar attack earlier in early March.
Pharming attacks are similar to phishing identity theft attacks, but don't require a "lure," such as a Web link that victims must click on to be taken to the attack Web site. The attacks have been increasing in recent months, as Internet users become more savvy about traditional phishing scams and online criminal groups look for new ways to collect sensitive information or financial data from victims, according to The Anti-Phishing Working Group.

Of particular interest from a keyword perspective is that, "Pharming", has previously been coined by Ag Biz and refers to genetically engineered crop management. (Pharmaceutics+Farming= Pharming)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0003CA37-5C57-114B-9C5783414B7F0000

Although, in it's internet form, it is on the top page of Google, the term has been around for awhile and Ag business dominates the term. (ie pharming.com is about agriculture)

 

[.X.]

Thanks for the heads up grrilla,Keep your firewalls on!

 

[vimkar]

very interesting ...
thanks for sharing :loveyou: