FBI Releases Cyber-fraud Advisory Document for Businesses

The FBI has recently issued a comprehensive advisory informing about avoiding detecting and replying to corporate account takeover incidents as there has been a tremendous increase in the cybercriminals activities that targets small businesses, universities, organizations etc.

The advisory document was jointly prepared by the FBI, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the United States Secret Service, and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC).

According to the advisory, the FBI cautions regarding unwanted e-mails that are supposedly sent from delivery services, the IRS, the Better Business Bureau, financial institutions, Federal courts, and even from hacked e-mail accounts of other employees of the organization.

As per the experts, the main of the cybercrooks is to persuade employee to open the enclosed malicious attachments and visit the harmful websites, so that the malicious software is installed on to the employee's system.

This malicious software facilitates the criminal to monitor and track employee's actions across the Internet and business' internal network. And this tracking generally includes, visiting employees' financial institution and accessing login credential such as username and password. By accessing all this information, criminals can carry illegal transactions that seems like authorized transaction carried by the employee or company.

Furthermore, FBI provided suggestions about safeguarding against such kinds of threats by creating awareness among workers regarding safe security practices and improving the security of the firm's computer network and enhancing domestic banking protocols.

For instance, the advisory suggests that net banking operations be done from dedicated systems only. In simpler terms, online banking should be done from systems that are not used for surfing, e-mailing, social networking or other such activities.

Further, they recommended to regularly check for corporate accounts and warning alerts. In case, if there are some suspicious activities, users should instantly halt all the online activities and report the matter to superiors, financial institution and the police.

Moreover, installing all security updates for the operating system, along with already installed applications is necessary to avoid such problems. Besides, users should install the latest version of anti-malware software. The advisory also emphasized on users to realize their duties for activities.

Related article: FBI’s ICCC Annual Report Discusses Fraudulent and Non-Fraudulent Complaints

» SPAMfighter News - 11/1/2010