Sunday, March 20, 2011

URL Shorteners, Banking Sites Increasingly Exploited by Online Crooks


McAfee also warns that URL shorteners, like those used to accommodate Twitter's140 character limit, make the cyber criminal's task even easier.

Unlike many typical Web addresses that show Internet users the name of the site they're about visit, shorter URLs tend to display a string of letters and numbers that seem to have no rhyme or reason. For example, instead of showing a user "http://bankofamerica.com"
abbreviated URLs might display only "http://bit.ly/XpEwA".
As another Internet security firm Symantec said in its recent report on 2010 threats, URL shortening services will "become the phisher's best friend."
"Because users often have no idea where a shortened URL is actually sending them, phishers are able to disguise links that the average security conscious user might think twice about clicking on," the company said.
As consumers continue to bank online, attacks on financial sites will likely increase in 2010...!!