Anything Inspirational

The last place anyone would expect to face a computer security attack is on the windshield of their car in the form of a parking ticket.

But that’s the latest — and intensely clever — way that hackers are attempting to goad people into visiting infected websites and willingly install malware on their machines.

The scam is instantly clever once you hear how it works: Hackers print up phony “PARKING VIOLATION” notices and plaster them on cars parked on the street. The phony ticket directs the car’s owner to visit a certain website, and of course the website in question (which largely seems to comprise of photos of badly parked cars) is a hack site which attempts to install malware on your PC.

Essentially what we have here is a phishing attack that takes place in the real world instead of via email. The use of fliers on parked cars is what’s truly ingenious: A similar attack sent via postal mail would probably have minimal effect, but people are incredibly protective of their cars, and I imagine these windshield fliers will actually have a pretty good percentage of people typing in the URLs typed on them.

The good news — for now — is that the fliers are extremely crude, printed on yellow paper and offering nothing in the way of legal language that would compel a sophisticated and naturally skeptical reader to even visit the website in question. Like the earliest email phishing attacks, this attack may be simplistic, but it’s probably a precursor of more advanced attacks to come. When hackers scan in real parking tickets and reprint them, replacing the URL printed there with one for a sophisticated attack site, then the sparks are going to start flying. (Installing malware is boring by comparison… I expect the real attacks will involve collecting money and hijacking credit cards and bank accounts wholesale.)

This appears to be a very limited attack (reported only in Grand Forks, North Dakota) for the time being, but it’s a good idea to keep your skepticism handy next time you receive a parking “violation,” just in case.
 
THESE TWO WERE SENT TO ME VIA E-MAIL
GPS Users….
A car was burglarized while fans were at a football match. It was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. 
When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used
the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents. 

CELL PHONE Users…
One lady has changed the way she lists her names on her phone after her handbag was stolen.  
Twenty minutes later, when she called her hubby from a pay phone to tell him what had happened, he said, ”I received your text asking about our pin number and I’ve replied a little while ago.”
When they contaced the bank, the staff told them all their money was already withdrawn. The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text ‘hubby’ in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. It took twenty minutes. 
Moral of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list.
Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc….
And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts,
CONFIRM by calling back.  Also, when you’re being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don’t reach them, be very careful about going places to meet ‘family and friends’ who text you.