Page 90 - StudyBook.pdf

74 Chapter 2 • General Security Concepts: Attacks

sending out massive amounts of mail impersonating a Web site they have spoofed.
They claim to be from the human resource department, accounts receivable, com-
plaints, and so forth, and produce an official looking notice alerting the user they
need to login to their account for one reason or another.The “link” to the official
site masquerades a connection to the spoofed site. Once the user goes to the
spoofed site, it’s very hard to differentiate it from the real one. Once the user enters
the credentials, usually they are redirected to the real site after the attacker has
stolen the credentials, and the user doesn’t have any idea of what happened.
The best way to protect from phishing and Web site spoofing is to always keep
your Internet browser patched, and to check the URL address bar to verify the
correct site is accessed. Phishing is so dangerous that the latest versions of major
browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera, have added built-in
phishing protection, and sites like Google and eBay offer their own toolbar that
include anti-phishing protection.You can visit the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a
coalition of industry and law-enforcement agencies focusing on eliminating fraud
and identity theft that result from phishing, pharming, and other e-mail spoofing
efforts. For more information go to www.antiphishing.org.
In closing, identity is one of the most critical needs in network security; unfor-
tunately, it is also the most often unappreciated need.As it stands, online identity is
easy to claim but difficult to verify.

Wardialing

Wardialing, which gets its name from the film “WarGames,” is the act of dialing
large blocks of telephone numbers, via modem, searching for a computer with
which to connect.The attacker in this case uses a program known as a wardialer to
automate this process.These programs are usually quite flexible and will dial a
given block of numbers at a set interval, logging whatever they may happen to
find.While this technique was previously heavily used, telecom technology now
makes it easier to identify war dialers, therefore making it slightly more of a risk to
potential attackers.
From the viewpoint of someone in charge of securing a large corporate infras-
tructure, it makes sense to wardial all known company lines to check for modems
that may be connected without your knowledge.Though the practice is on a
decline, installation of unauthorized modems by employees still represents a huge
threat to enterprise security.

www.syngress.com