Dave Pinwell

Dave Pinwell

Dave Pinwell is a prolific blogger and IT enthusiast and has kindly allowed us to reproduce his popular weekly IT Talk column first published in the Solihull News. Dave is also CEO of Colebridge Trust and SUSTAiN which play a key role in providing strategic support to Solihull’s Voluntary & Community sector. Dave has extensive experience in the IT sector, with roles including IT Director with Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe Ltd.
Online Security, Tech News 15th April 2016 1643

‘Spear Phishing’ Email Con Is Costly For Victims

There have been alarming reports this month that the threat of phishing is escalating in severity and sophistication and is even becoming quite expensive for some victims.

While most phishing attempts are broadcast mails, dangling a hook to see if anyone bites, there has been a radical increase in the frequency of ‘spear phishing’.

This term is used to describe personalised attacks, directed at a specific individual, or sometimes a business.

In the past, hackers have found spear phishing too much like hard work because it has been time consuming.

Now, though, automated information harvesting, particularly from web sites and social media, has made it possible to generate realistic and highly targeted malicious emails.

As these contain details personalised to the intended victim, they can seem far more convincing than the suspicious looking efforts that we have become used to spotting.

Moreover, this new menace is being used to hold computers to ransom.

Folk tricked into believing the email and following its instruction have found their machines taken over and received demands to stump up serious cash to get them freed up again.

A report from cyber-security solutions specialists Proofpoint suggests that there have been at least 300,000 known incidents of this new threat, known as TA530, being received to date.

Most of these have been targeted at individuals with a presumed ability to pay, CEOs and other senior personnel, leading to suspicions that LinkedIn may be being used to select potential victims and source some of the details that will make the communication convincing.

Wariness of incoming emails is increasingly vital.

For more information about this specific threat, search Google for ‘Proofpoint TA530’.

Dave Pinwell

Dave Pinwell is a prolific blogger and IT enthusiast and has kindly allowed us to reproduce his popular weekly IT Talk column first published in the Solihull News. Dave is also CEO of Colebridge Trust and SUSTAiN which play a key role in providing strategic support to Solihull’s Voluntary & Community sector. Dave has extensive experience in the IT sector, with roles including IT Director with Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe Ltd.

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