To the family of Kyu H. Chay,
I am sorry for your loss, but I thank you for your sacrifice. Kyu H. Chay is more that just an American hero, he represents the best of what we are capable of. He was a father, a husband and a protector of soldiers. I hope Jason and Kelly know how special their father is.
This was news I could not ignore because I really, really like Gmail. These hacks are ridiculous. I hope that google is getting a handle on this. It looks like the accounts are getting hacked with some sort of script that runs from a site or email while gmail is opened:
According to David Airey & gnucitizen.org:
The victim visits a page while being logged into GMail. Upon execution, the page performs a multipart/form-data POST to one of the GMail interfaces and injects a filter into the victim’s filter list. In the example above, the attacker writes a filter, which simply looks for emails with attachments and forward them to an email of their choice. This filter will automatically transfer all emails matching the rule. Keep in mind that future emails will be forwarded as well. The attack will remain present for as long as the victim has the filter within their filter list, even if the initial vulnerability, which was the cause of the injection, is fixed by Google.
— gnucitizen
As many of you already know on November 2nd, MakeUseOf.com’s domain was stolen from us. It took us about 36 hours to get the domain back. As we have pointed out earlier the hacker somehow managed to get access to my Gmail account and from there to our GoDaddy account, unlock the domain and move it to another registrar.
You can see the whole story on our temporary blog makeuseof-temporary.blogspot.com/
I wasn’t planning to publish anything about the incident or cracker (person who steals domains) and how he managed to pull it off unless I was completely sure about it myself. I had a good feeling it was a Gmail security flaw but wanted to confirm it before posting anything about it on MakeUseOf. We love Gmail and giving them bad publicity is not something we would ever want to do.
Now the thing is the domain name domainsgames.org is protected by Moniker and they hide all the contact info for it.
Domain ID:D154519952-LROR
Domain Name:DOMAINSGAME.ORG
Created On:22-Oct-2008 07:35:56 UTC
Last Updated On:08-Nov-2008 12:11:53 UTC
Expiration Date:22-Oct-2009 07:35:56 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Moniker Online Services Inc. (R145-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:MONIKER1571241
.
.
.
.
Name Server:NS3.DOMAINSERVICE.COM
Name Server:NS2.DOMAINSERVICE.COM
Name Server:NS1.DOMAINSERVICE.COM
Name Server:NS4.DOMAINSERVICE.COM
More at Makeusof.com
*** SCAM***************************************
THE CHEVRON/TEXACO OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION.
You have been selected in the on-going Chevron/Texaco award held this
November 2008. We the promo board are pleased to inform you that you
alongside four(4) other lucky winners have been approved for a payment
of $1,000,000.00 USD. (One Million Dollars) in cash.
If you did receive this email, it means you are one of the five(5)
lucky winners. Your verification number is: (CT-222-6747,FGN/P-900-56).
CLAIMS PROCESSING OFFICER:
Name:Barr.James Ben
Email: barrjamesben07@live.com
Phone: +234 702 563 8587
You are also advised to provide him with the under listed information
as soon as possible:
1.Name:…………………………………………….
2.Address:………………………………………….
3.Marital Status:…………………………………
4.Occupation:……………………………………….
5.Age:……………………………………………..
6.Sex:……………………………………………..
7.Nationality:………………………………………
8.Country Of Residence:…………………….
9.city/state………………………………
10.Telephone Number:…………………………..
11.Fax Number:…………………………………….
We are glad to have you as one of our luckly winners.
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Rose Wood.
Online Co-ordinator.
END OF YEAR PROMOTION!!!
*******************SCAM
Here is some good quick advice from my fellow blogger Debra Radcliff:
Panda Security reports increased spread and success of popup “security warnings.†These warnings popup when people surf the Web and hit a malicious or infected Website, and keep flashing their warnings until the user goes to the link, at which time they get infected.
No legitimate security company would do this to a computer, so don’t click the link. Instead, disconnect from the Internet, clear your browser history and restart your computer. If your browser is still flashing warnings, the system will need to be disinfected through anti-virus or a computer restoration service.
Usually these false security warnings are a symptom of something much worse. I’ve had some that will actually not allow you to do much of anything but click on the link in their fake pop-up. What I did was a system restore, but you can also boot in Safe mode and attempt to clean the system.
Sorin Mihailovici is making a movie about the Nigerian scammers.
419: the Nigerian Scam is about the scam e-mails that people receive daily. The Internet is flooded with e-mails promising money-making business proposals, lottery win notifications, and fabulous inheritances. This is the story of how one man’s involvement with such an Internet scam ruined his life. Before I started shooting, I myself exchanged a few e-mails with real scammers from Nigeria and Ivory Coast. They even send me “documents†certifying all kinds of positions and deals that they have. The inclusion of this real correspondence with the scammers gave an added level of realism to my film.
I hope the movie goes viral, goes on CNN all major news outlets so that people will be cautious about the traps set on the web’s ruthless anarchy. The price of true freedom only available in the newly discovered digital landscape.
While I don’t think an ‘eye for an eye’ type justice will come to all of the third world country online scavengers, I do believe there is hope for potential victims. My hope is in the spark of awareness that can be ignited by media like Sorin Mihailovici’s movie or this little blog. If I can help even one person NOT send a penny to an online liar, then I feel like these words I publish are worth it.
Subject: IRS NOTICE : $90.00 to your account – Just for your time!
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:00:57 -0400
Congratulations!
Dear Customer,
You’ve been selected to take part in our quick and easy 9 questions survey
In return we will credit $90.00 to your account – Just for your time!
Please spare two minutes of your time and take part in our online survey
so we can improve our services.
Don’t miss this chance to change something.
To access the form please copy/paste the link below in your browser (or click the link):
http://121.73.43.97/IRS.Online/index.php*phishing site
This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,a bureau of the Department of he Treasury.
Subject: Notice from: IRS
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:03:41 +0100
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity
we have determined that you are eligible to receive
a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $120.50.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days
in order to IWP the data received.
If u don’t receive your refund within 9 business
days from the original IRS mailing date shown,
you can start a refund trace online.
If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether
they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org.
is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will
be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes.
If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing
the recipient’s name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of
section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers, directors,
trustees, members, or major contributors.
To access the form for your tax refund, please click here
This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,
a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
To:
Subject: Mobil Oil Lottery
Dear Mobil Prize Funds Beneficiary,
As part of our strategy in promoting our products, we have embarked on
a promotional lottery,which involves the process of selecting winners
from an email database of businesses and people from all over the
world using the internet (email).
You have been selected in the “Mobil Oil Lottery” promotional lottery
programme also known as the Second Date Draws which is held in
Nigeria, one of the biggest oil exporting country in Africa.
Count your self very lucky and fortunate as this kind of opportunity
does not occur twice, as you have been selected and filed with winning
batch number (MSD32625346XX), winning the amount of Two Million
Dollars ($2,000,000.00) only in liquid cash.
Your winning lottery funds is ready for disbursements and its pending
response from you, further information will be provided by the
assigned agent {Mrs Vanessa Vault} handling your remittance with
details as stated below:
Contact Name: Mrs. Vanessa Vault
Contact Postition: Mobil Fiduciary claims
Contact Person Email Address:mobiloffices.1916@yahoo.com
You are to write to the above personnel(via email) about the transfer
of your winning prize funds to you, who shall provide all the
necessary information and provide you with the terms and condition of
payments remittance as well as reffering you to the payments office.
Your further correspondence will be appreciated. Congratulations!!
Regards,
Mobil Corresponding Office
From: info@irs.gov
Subject: Message #53465474
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:29:03 +0000
Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush program to jumpstart
economy. Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.
The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.
Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before 30 October, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.
Submitting your form on 30 October, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.
To access Economic Stimulus Refund, please click here.
Note: If you received this message in your SPAM/BULK folder, that is because of the large amount of e-mails we are sending out or because of the restrictions implemented by your ISP.