14 DAY TRIAL // Security experts from all over the world will have a very busy Christmas season as spammers, scammers, phishers and hackers have prepared new techniques and methods to attack computer users. Not only will they attempt to connect to their computers and access private information, but they will also conduct all sorts of attacks meant to bring them financial details usually required by online shopping websites. This way, they could get an important amount of money from the huge online spending predicted for 2007. Researchers have predicted a busy online shopping season, as merchants prepared attractive bonuses and promotions.
"With such large amounts of money being moved across the Internet at this time of year by novice and expert Internet shoppers alike, the risks of falling foul of cybercrime or device infection should not be ignored", David Emm of Kaspersky Lab said, according to Web User News.
"Remember that the cybercriminal succeeds by being covert. Ensure that you take precautions to secure any device you use to access the Internet, purchase only from a reputable source, and scrutinise your bank statements for rogue or inaccurate transactions."
As far I am concerned, the phishing scams are the most dangerous attacks because they usually attempt to steal users' financial details. If the traditional phishing attacks were based on fake URLs similar to the genuine ones, the new techniques would rely on DNS changes, which can redirect the users to malicious pages straight through the original website. It's quite hard to notice such a phishing scam, but specialized software solution may really help you.
I guess you already know the traditional advises: don't open unknown emails coming from anonymous sources. Do not download untrusted emails and avoid running suspect executable files. Don't forget to update your security solutions and keep them up to date with the latest virus definitions.