Advisory: FTC Releases Alerts on Protecting Against Identity Theft

National Cyber Awareness System: FTC Releases Alerts on Protecting Against Identity Theft 09/20/2017 04:58 PM EDT

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released two alerts to educate consumers on recommended protections against identity theft after the recent data breach at Equifax. Users should consider placing security freezes with the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. Alternative security recommendations include using fraud alerts and free credit monitoring from Equifax. 

US-CERT encourages users to refer to the FTC alerts on Equifax credit freezes and fraud alerts vs. credit freezes. See the US-CERT Tip on Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft for more information.

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2017/09/20/FTC-Releases-Alerts-Protecting-Against-Identity-Theft

Advisory: Potential Hurricane Harvey Phishing Scams

Reminder from US-CERT that recent disasters will lead to scam "fund-raising" emails.


National Cyber Awareness System:

Hurricane-Related Scams

09/08/2017 01:56 PM EDT

Original release date: September 08, 2017
As the peak of the 2017 hurricane season approaches, US-CERT warns users to be watchful for various malicious cyber activity targeting both disaster victims and potential donors. Users should exercise caution when handling emails that relate to recent hurricanes, even if those emails appear to originate from trusted sources. Disaster-related phishing emails may trick users into sharing sensitive information. Such emails could also contain links or attachments directing users to malware-infected websites. In addition, users should be wary of social media pleas, calls, texts, or door-to-door solicitations relating to the recent hurricanes.
To avoid becoming a victim of fraudulent activity, users and administrators should consider taking the following preventive measures:

• Review the information from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Wise Giving in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey.
• Review information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Building a Digital Defense Against Charity Fraud.
• Use caution when opening email attachments, and do not click on links in unsolicited email messages. Refer to the US-CERT Security Tip Using Caution with Email Attachments.
• Refer to US-CERT's Security Tip on Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks.

Example 206: Urgent Notice

Fake "warning" leads to forged UMN login page aimed at stealing passwords.

Message text:

From: UMN Admin <noreply@xxx.edu>
Date: Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 4:52 PM
Subject: Urgent Notice
 
To:
 
To all staffs/employees and UMN users, we have observed that there are some
non-active email address in our database recently serving as a loop to
hackers trying to hijack our server. User are advised to CLICK
<hxxp://umn-edu.xxxx.biz/index.html> here to login and validate their email
address and continue with their normal activity as their login information
will not be altered or shared.
If you receive this message as spam, kindly move message to your inbox
before you click. Failure to comply with this demand will be regarded
as non active user and will lead to deletion after 48 hours of
reception of this email.
Sorry for the inconveniences.
Admin.

Web Form

Fake UMN login hosted at .biz address

Things to Note:

• Email forged as coming from a .edu address - but NOT umn.edu
• Web form hosted at a ".biz" address - NOT umn.edu
• Filling in the form redirect to the login.umn.edu web page