Spyware, viruses, & security forum: NEWS - February 08, 2013

... online

A brazen intrusion into several e-mail accounts belonging to friends and family of former President George H. W. Bush have exposed a wealth of personal photos, correspondence, home addresses, and other sensitive information, prompting a criminal investigation, according to published reports.

The trove of Bush communications, which were sent from 2009 to 2012, were lifted from at least six separate e-mail accounts, including the AOL account of Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of George H. W. Bush and sister of former President George W. Bush, according to The Smoking Gun. The hack opens a window into some of the extended family's most personal and intimate moments, including several members planning the funeral of the older former president when he was hospitalized late last year.

One e-mail reported that George H. W. Bush's condition was so perilous in late December that his chief of staff informed the former president's adult children that "your dad's funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. just to go through all the details." The Bush aide, Jean Becker, went on to say the former president's health status "fell under the broadening category of things NOT TO TELL YOUR MOTHER."

Continued : http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/02/bush-family-privacy-shattered-after-e-mails-photos-exposed-online/

Also:
Hacker gains access to private Bush family emails and photos; criminal investigation launched
Hacker accesses Bush family emails, photos, report says
Hacker compromises email accounts of Bush family members

From the Websense Security Labs Weblog:

Hot on the heels of Friday's announcement by Twitter that they 'detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data' and subsequent confirmation that 'attackers may have had access to limited user information' for 'approximately 250,000 users', Websense Security Labs are tracking a phishing campaign propagated via Twitter's direct message functionality.

Whilst no correlation between the two events can be drawn at this time, Twitter users should be on guard for signs of their own account being abused or compromised, as well for abnormal signs or unusual behavior (or perhaps in many cases, more unusual than normal) from those that they follow. Specifically, users should be cautious, as always, when following any links received from direct messages or Tweets particularly if the page you've been directed to is asking for your credentials or personal information.

Given the recent compromise, Websense Security Labs suggest that you regularly check your online accounts for signs of compromise and, as if anyone needs an excuse to do so, regularly update your suitably complex (and most definitely not your pet/team/town or dictionary word) password as well as reviewing the permissions granted to third-party applications that have access to your accounts (Twitter: How to Connect and Revoke Third-Party Applications). Should you have been unlucky enough to fall victim to this recent compromise, you'll have hopefully received a notification from Twitter that suggests these actions along with some general tips for account security: [Screenshot]

Continued : http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/archive/2013/02/05/battered-twitter-phish-but-no-chips.aspx

As a tech-savvy person in a family that mostly consists of low level Internet users - and especially because of my line of work - I'm often tasked with helping them when their computers become riddled with malware.

One of these shortcuts were online tests that let you test your ability to spot fake emails, webpages or software. After all, repetition IS the best teacher.

When the idea first came to me, I thought the Internet was rife with them, but I was wrong. So, I had to take the time to dig around and make a collection of links to present to my "pupils."

Learning how to spot phishing emails and websites

Phishing tests were relatively easy to find, but unfortunately there aren't many of them.

By far the most popular is MailFrontier's (renamed as SonicWALL Phishing IQ Test when SonicWALL acquired MailFrontier in 2006).

It's easy to see why. Once you go over the test and see the results, you are able to see the "warning signs" for each email: [Screenshot]

The explanations are simple and directly applied to each mail. Still, there is one downside: the email examples are always the same each time you take the test.

Continued : http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=14375