Cyber criminals at work to exploit Japan crisis

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cyber criminals just don't want to miss an opportunity. This is true even in these times when Japan is under crisis following earth quake and Tsunami.

Cyber criminals have been reported trying to exploit the situation to make money by employing all kids of means - SEO poisoning, phishing and building malicious sites - to target unsuspecting Internet users.

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Black hat attacks

The Websense Security Labs reported on Wednesday that they have tracked several 'black hat' attacks designed to take advantage of recent events in Japan and Japan’s disaster-affected population.

Symantec observed more than 50 domains with the names of either “Japan tsunami” or “Japan earthquake” within the first few hours of this unfortunate event. The domains are either parked, available for sale, or are linked to earthquake sites, said Shantanu Ghosh, Vice President, India Product Operations, Symantec.

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He said Symantec has also observed a classic 419 message targeting the Japanese disaster. The message is a bogus "next of kin" story that purports to settle millions of dollars owing to an earthquake and tsunami victim.

SEO poisoning

According to Elad Sharf, spokesman, Websense Security Labs, SEO poisoning was used within minutes after the first wave hit the Japanese coast, to push fake AV. The company has also detected phony phishing emails asking for a donation on behalf of ‘Humanitarian Care’ and targeted malicious emails provide nuclear crisis ‘advice’ with attachments and links that lead to malicious content.

There are also false promises of video footage used to push scam viral facebook applications, the Websense spokesman added.

According to Sharf, “Cybercriminals exploiting news of disastrous events such as this, really are the bottom feeders of the electronic age. While the rest of the world is shocked and saddened, these cybercriminals rub their hands with glee seeing it as more  "ammo" for their "arsenal" of malicious activities.”

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