Thanksgiving, an Occasion for Caution from Hackers

Global Secure Systems, a leading consultancy firm on IT security, is warning organizations to critically scan their IT policies and security procedures before the approaching weekend for Thanksgiving in United States.

The Thanksgiving occasion in United States particularly emerges in this season because at this time, retailers make free offers to their consumers. But this is also the time when malware spreads, so companies should be on guard against hackers' offers that often come in the form of electronic frauds and malware-infected e-mails.

The day following Thanksgiving (November 22, 2007), i.e. the Black Friday (November 23, 2007), leads to Cyber Monday (November 26, 2007), which is the day for a marketing spree. Both the days are big opportunities for business retailers and Internet fraudsters. This therefore requires consumers also to guard themselves against e-mail advertising deals that sound too attractive to be real.

According to GSS Managing Director David Hobson, the unfortunate development is that the US hackers take advantage of this long weekend holiday to unleash all kinds of malware and launch attacks on computers connected to the Internet. Ebizq published Hobson's statement on November 20, 2007.

During this holiday period, a typical scam picks a product with the maximum demand and distributes spam mails offering the item at a price much below the normal. Victims in the loop get busy keying in their credit card details on fraudulent sites crafted to appear as trusted ones. Some might even unwittingly download and install on their PCs a keylogger to enable theft of personal information that users enter while making an online transaction.

These are the online frauds that remain vibrant as they make easy way for cyber criminals to earn quick bucks. A November report by vendor CyberSource estimates that fraud losses in e-commerce for the US will rise to $3.6 billion in 2007, marking a 20% increase over 2006.

Hence, to keep alert on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as experts call those days, security professionals recommend the US companies to update their security patches and scan their IT procedures. Consumers are also recommended to deploy updated anti-virus software, firewalls and spam filters on their PCs.

Related article: Thanksgiving Links Become New Tool of Malware Propagation

» SPAMfighter News - 12/1/2007