The email in the example below claims the recipient was caught speeding in New York city at a certain time and recipient is charged of committing the violation “speed over 55 zone”. The email states that the victim is charged with a traffic offense and requesting that to print out the attached ticket and send it out to the town court of Chatam at a provided PO BOX.

In fact, the zipped file is not a speeding ticket but contains an .exe file which installs a Trojan on the recipient’s computer. The Trojan was identified as being W32.FakeHddRepair and which constantly displays hardware error messages.

From Microsoft Malware Protection Center has the following information about the W32.Fake Hdd Repair Trojan:

The email claims to be from popular Australian based travel insurance provider Cover-More, and disguised as a Travel Insurance policy is a malicious exe-file. The email urges their victim to open the attached .zip file to view the Certificate of Insurance.

Example:

The body text of the email says:

Although it looks legitimate, the email is not from Cover-More insurance and the attached file does not contain insurance information as claimed. In fact, the zipped file contains an .exe file that will install malware on the recipient’s computer. Typically, once installed, such malware can make connections with remote servers operated by hackers and download further malware and harvest personal information from the compromised computer. Often, criminals are able to use the compromised computers to launch further spam and scam campaigns. Note that the policy numbers vary in the different emails we have seen.

Cover-More has already published a “Hoax Email Alert” notice on its website warning people about these malicious emails. Cover-More states it does not send out policy information via .zip or .exe files. If you receive such emails, do not open any attachments or click on any links that it contains. If you have already opened the attached file, you are advised to run up-to-date anti-malware and anti-virus scanners to clean any malware from your system.

Omniquad clients using Mailwall Remote email filtering are protected from these types of email scams and malware.

            Protect yourself from email frauds.

• Never click on Hyperlinks within emails, instead, copy and paste them into your browser.
• Do not open any file attached to the email.
• Always look for “https://” and padlock on web sites that require personal information.
• If you didn’t initiate a transaction to which an email is referring, it’s probably a scam.
• Never respond to spam / suspicious email or emails from unknown senders.
• Do not supply your personal / Bank account information to strangers, they are most likely scammers.
• Use spam filtering  software.

- The Omniquad Security Team

When social networking as a concept was unleashed onto a wider audience, it was largely aimed at young people and of those most were divided between MySpace and Bebo. Then Facebook came crashing onto the scene in 2004 and really there has been very little competition since.

Facebook seemingly offered it all; a way to share photos, interests, videos and opinions easily and quickly. People’s lives are now neatly compacted into Timelines and whatever you had to say, you would say it on Facebook.

Twitter was the only really serious competition but the services it offered were limited and so it was never seriously going to take over. Then in June 2011 Google Plus was launched and although it has had a slow start, nevertheless it does appear to be catching up with over 500 million users worldwide. So can it really take over from Facebook to become the world’s most popular social networking site?

Benefits of Google Plus

When Google+ was launched it was designed as an invitation only site, perhaps hoping to benefit from the buzz that was generated around Pinterest when that site was launched as invitation only. Back then it was better known as Google Circles before adopting the catchier Google+ (or G+) name later on in the year.

The invite only marketing ploy worked and soon the site was forced to open its doors to everyone over the age of 18 after experiencing what they termed as an “insane demand” for new accounts. The age limit was dropped to 13+ in the US and most European countries at the beginning of 2012.

Within Google+ you can organise your contacts into Circles, which means you can have family in one circle, friends in another and work colleagues in a third. This keeps your contacts separate and means that if you do decide to post those holiday snaps of yourself online, you can choose which circles to share them with and best of all, the names you give your circles will not be shown.

You can also filter what appears in your stream from nothing, some things, most things and everything. This stops your stream from becoming clogged up with irrelevant items.

Hangouts can be used to engage in group chats with one or more people, up to a maximum of 10 which is extremely useful for business conferencing or merely chatting with groups of friends. Other features include instant messaging, instant uploads, games, communities and so on.

Google Plus for Businesses and SEO

Word soon got around that having a Google+ account could improve your SEO in Google search results, especially with the Google Authorship feature. This verifies author identity, making it easier for writers to claim content they have written and for users to search for content written by the same author.

Other Google+ Business Tools include private sharing, administrative controls and integration of Hangouts with Gmail and Google Calendar.

Businesses also discovered that their Google+ profiles added credibility to their search result profiles with their latest Google+ activity also shown along with their profile picture.

Google+ Local is aimed at smaller businesses who want to show up in Google Maps and local searches.

Google Plus Privacy Issues

The beginning of 2012 saw the first rumblings of concern over Google+ and privacy issues. The concerns centred around the fact that Google, in its wisdom, added photos, posts, profiles, updates, etc from Google+ accounts to search results. This was great for those who used Google+ on a purely professional level as they saw their SEO results improve thanks to the inclusion of their profiles in search results, however many others were disgruntled that their personal information could now be freely searched on the internet. This also led to accusations that Google favoured its own social networking site over competitors such as Facebook.

Google say that users only see the social content of friends if they are logged into Google+ and only information you have made public will appear in those search results, so your holiday snaps could still be safe for now.

Some aspects of your Google+ profile can be used for advertising purposes such as the +1 option. If you +1 a comment or a post then this information is made public and can be used for ads. Essentially this means that if you +1 Preston Bike Shop then should one of your friends search for bike shops, Preston Bike Shop will feature higher in their search results and your +1 will be shown.

Users can hide the +1 tab on their profile if they want this information to remain private.

Google also came under fire for linking existing Picasa web albums to user accounts as many photos were made public that users had not intended to be so.

Google+ Privacy Settings

As with most social networking sites you do have some control over who sees what on your profile. With Google+ you can decide if anyone is able to see who your friends are, restrict your personal profile information and reduce the visibility of individual posts in your stream.

Going into your profile and then privacy settings does give you a choice of settings that enables you to make your profile as private or as public as possible. Options also appear every time you post an update so you can choose to make it public or seen by those in particular circles only, thus it’s easy to control who sees what.

Google still feels very ‘grown-up’ when compared to the likes of Facebook but it’s also easier on the eye, uncluttered with ads and doesn’t feature those annoying game requests. It might be a while before the younger generation switch but for businesses and those who are tired of the inane chatter of Facebook, Google+ is a welcome sight/site!

- The Omniquad Team

Detailed Analysis of Emails claiming to be from CNN News or BBC News:

Emails purporting to be CNN notifications suggest the victim to click on a link to read the breaking news stories pertaining to the pope.

These emails are not sent from CNN, and also links don’t open any CNN news articles.

The messages include seemingly official CNN graphics and formatting. However do not click on  the link, because if you do so, you will infect your computer with a Trojan horse.

The email says: Click the Following to access the sent link:

Pope ‘could be sued over child abuse claims’ Exclusive! – CNN.com 

Any news story involving the new Pope Francis, as head of the Catholic Church, is bound to grab headlines, especially if it is scandalous.

Omniquad Security Research Labs found that the endpoint URL contains a criminal toolkit known as the BlackHole Exploit Kit. BlackHole is a web application used by criminals to exploit browser vulnerabilities as a means of downloading and installing Trojans and other types of malicious software into victim computer. Victims who fall for the ruse and click links in these messages may inadvertently install a variety of information stealing malware on their computers.

During our research, we found that some versions automatically redirects victim to the genuine CNN website once the fake webpage has been loaded and attempted to deliver its payload.

Here are some of the other email subjects that claim to be from the BBC.

BBC-Email: USA government decided to follow Cyprus and rise deposit taxes!!!

BBC-Email: Cyprus already confirmed one time tax withdrawal TODAY!

BBC-Email: Cyprus Bank-Levy Passage in Doubt as EU Shows Aggression

BBC-Email: Cyprus banks shut extended to Monday

BBC-Email: Cyprus can amend bailout terms

BBC-Email: Cyprus decided to rise bank tax up to 15% for Corporate sector

BBC-Email: Cyprus effect on stocks likely long-term

BBC-Email: Cyprus government today accepted one time bank tax withdrawal but higher than expected

BBC-Email: Cyprus races to rework savings tax after closing banks till Thursday

BBC-Email: Cyprus rises tax value and confirmed one time withdrawal!

These are all very topical subject lines referring directly to current events.

If an email contains a link and you’re unsure whether it’s legitimate, hover over it with your mouse to see what address it directs you to. Also look out for confusing Alt Tags which may take your attention away from the bottom left corner when you hover with the mouse on the link. Even if the Alt Tag should say “BBC News” or “CNN”, unless the domain referred bottom left is also CNN or BBC, don’t click!

Be alert for clicking /opening links or attachments in unsolicited emails, even if they appear to come from a legitimate organization.

Omniquads Mailwall Remote cloud email filtering solution stops emails such as these for our clients. Our cloud web filtering solution Surfwall Remote blocks malicious links containing malware.

How to Protect yourself from email frauds.

• Never click on Hyperlinks within emails, instead, copy and paste them into your browser.
• Do not open any file attached to the email.
• Always look for “https://” and padlock on web sites that require personal information.
• If you didn’t initiate a transaction to which an email is referring, it’s probably a scam.
• Never respond to spam / suspicious email or emails from unknown senders.
• Do not supply your personal / Bank account information to strangers, they are most likely scammers.
• Use spam filtering  software.

- The Omniquad Security Team

MovieStarPlanet is a free social interactive fantasy website created for children aged between 8 and 15 years old. Children get to choose from a variety of movie star characters, dress them up, choose their hairstyles, make movies, play games and chat.

The point of the game is to earn fame and fortune by social interacting, making movies and watching other people’s movies. In doing so you can earn Fame Points and Star Coins which can be used to buy more costumes, backdrops for your movies, animations, home decor, etc. Players can also exchange gifts, collect autographs and trade items.

The more competitions you enter, games you play, friends you have and interactions you make, the more rewards you are given and as you progress you can go higher up the levels which allows you to have more character animations and other additions.

MovieStarPlanet VIP Account

The VIP account is available to buy at £49.99 for one year and in return users get 350 diamonds and 50,000 Star Coins. The VIP account also allows you to access additional games, have private chats, get movie additions and animations and fast-track your way to fame and fortune.

In addition StarCoins can be bought via credit card or phone.

Is MovieStarPlanet Safe?

Well the company behind the game would have you think so. On the parent page the company states that they do their utmost to ensure the game is safe and secure

They have clear rules such as not giving away personal information or using inappropriate or abusive language and say that those who break the rules will be locked out of the game either temporarily or permanently. Profiles can also be deleted and IP addresses blocked.

In the parent section they do their best to convince parents of the safety of the game and encourage parents to talk to their children about internet safety. They say that usage is monitored both manually and by automated systems and that filters blacklist certain words. Moderators review all reports which are filed and are continually monitoring the site for inappropriate use.

MovieStar Planet Security and Concerns

You cannot get a website that is designed for children without there being some concerns and certainly MovieStarPlanet has its fair share.

The site has been discussed on both Netmums and Mumsnet, http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/a1419378-Movie-Star-Planet popular parenting sites, where parents have voiced concerns over the website, citing examples of children being sent inappropriate messages, accounts being hacked and children warned for reporting others. Parents also questioned the website’s rewards for befriending strangers and options that allow players to be boyfriend or girlfriend.

To investigate further I set up a free account. I was not asked for an email address or prompted to tell an adult what I was doing. Within minutes I had created a character and was able to participate in chatrooms, some of which are called Love Cafe and Lovers Beach.

Some of the members had fairly innocuous names such as ILoveAnimals but others were called LoverGirl and DistrictLover. There were public chats which consisted of both boys and girls asking members to type ‘123’ if they loved them and asking them if they would go out with them. Others stated that they were ‘hot’.

Most were dressed in rock star type outfits but the boys could go bare breasted and the girls could wear bikinis and black, goth-type brassieres.

I found that if you asked someone how old they were, a warning came up stating you had violated their terms, however members were getting around this violation by using txt speak. A member started chatting to me and his second question to me was to ask if I had a ‘fone’ and could I give him my number.

Members can be invited into each other’s rooms for parties and chat. There didn’t seem to be any way to report the content of a chat but you could report a user by clicking on the warning symbol in their profile. There is also a life-ring symbol at the top right hand corner of the site which takes you to a pop up reminder of the rules.

The forum is full of chat about how to get more coins but the first time you log in you are directed to a post that tells you the rules of the forum, reminds you that it is moderated and informs members that inappropriate posts or language will be result in that member being banned.

I did report the player who asked for my number, a pop-up asked me if I wanted to block or report him. I clicked on report and another option asked if I was sure. Then a window popped up informing me that I could earn 30 coins if I entered my email address but it gave no indication of whether my report had been accepted.

MovieStarPlanet Accounts and Hacking

Hacking is another issue and one quick search leads to dozens of YouTube videos that posted details about how to hack into accounts. Again Mumsnet members reported concerns that their children’s accounts had been hacked and the StarCoins they had collected had been taken.

There are also plenty of sites that offer hacking tools for MovieStarPlanet; this would point to a blatant breach of the rules and security of the site but it’s not clear what, if anything, the site is doing about it.

It is very difficult to effectively monitor any site which is created purely for children and there are certainly many more security measures which MovieStarPlanet could take to ensure the safety of its members. Unfortunately sites like this do attract adults and it is clear from what parents have said and from our own research that the rules are being breached and complaints are not being handled as well as they could be.

As ever we would urge parents to monitor their children’s internet usage and encourage them to report anything which might disturb or unsettle them. Parents have the ultimate control over what their children see online and so it would be wise to use your own discretion at all times but to also ensure that you have access to parental controls and an up-to-date anti-virus system.

-The Omniquad Team

PS. We would love to hear from you if you have any experiences you would like to share. 

With billions of people connecting on social networking sites, these sites have become a number one target for scams, malware and worms. The only guaranteed way to keep yourself safe is not to join a social networking site but that is a bit like saying don’t have a computer. Knowledge however is power so, focusing on the most popular social network site – Facebook – here are some of the most common Facebook malware, scams and worms and how to deal with them.

The best way to protect yourself from malware and worms is to prevent them from ever reaching you in the first place. Unfortunately sites such as Facebook can make this difficult as you are essentially sharing your personal information to a large group of people, some of which you may never have met.

Changing Facebook Privacy Settings

If you have not already done so, we highly recommend that you take a look at your privacy settings and change them to friends only. Remember that anything you make public on Facebook is also made public to search engines.

You can now edit who sees your posts and who can look you up. You can also block search engines from being able to link to your Timeline. Even if you have already been through your settings recently, we recommend you do so again as Facebook is continually changing and evolving.

If you’ve been on Facebook a while then your privacy settings may have been quite lax at the beginning so if you go into privacy settings you can now limit past posts on Facebook.  Yes, it does mean going through each post and either making it ‘Friends Only’ or deleting it but it is worth it.

Rogue Facebook Add-ons

Very often a scam will appear on Facebook in the guise of a must-watch video or exclusive photo. In order to see the image or watch the photo you’ll be told that you must complete a security check or download a piece of software. This is known as a Rogue Browser Add-on and it can create chaos in your web browser, spamming friends, redirecting you to sites you didn’t want and even potentially downloading further malware that could steal your personal information.

If you think you might have a Rogue Browser Add-On the first thing you should do is run a full scan with your existing anti-virus. Then go into your Control Panel and search for any Programs that have been recently added that you didn’t want. You’d also be advised to then change your social network password and manually remove any fake posts it might have made.

How to Deal with Unwanted Facebook Apps

Should you have been caught out by Facebook and either intentionally or unintentionally downloaded an app that is now causing a considerable headache, you can remove it with these easy steps.

• Visit the App Center which is a cube icon on the left side of your home page.
• Hover over the offending app and click on the x that appears on the right.
• Or simply go to Account Settings (the cogwheel icon at the top right of your Facebook page)
• Choose Account Settings.
• Click on Apps and click on the x at the right of the app you want to remove.

Fraudulent Facebook Notification Emails

A lot of users receive email notifications of Facebook activity which is unnecessary if you log in on a daily basis. Lucily you can change notification settings very easily, thus saving your inbox from getting clogged up. To turn off Facebook notifications:

• Go into Settings or Account
• Click on ‘Notifications’ on the left hand side of your screen
• Here you can edit how Facebook contacts you with notifications

A popular scam is to send fake notifications to email addresses. The email will, to all intents and purposes, look like a legitimate Facebook email that asks you to click the link taking you to your login page. Now if you have altered your notification settings to opt out of emails you’ll know straight away that it’s a fake. If you haven’t there are other simple ways of finding out if it’s genuine or not:

• The reply-to email address is a hopelessly long one that is not connected to Facebook
• Hover over the link and the real website address will come up, usually a pharmaceutical one

If you still aren’t sure, open a new browser window and log straight into Facebook to check directly whether or not you do have notifications.

Remember, if it looks suspicious then don’t click on the link as the worst case scenario is that it’s a malware link or a worm.

The Danger of Facebook Worms

No, not the game app! Back in 2012 Facebook had to lock down the accounts of 45,000 users because a malicious email purporting to be from Facebook actually contained a worm that duplicated itself and spread, hacking into users’ accounts and targeting their connections with malicious links. Personal information is then obtained and even sold on the black market.

Remember, never click on an email link if you are at all suspicious. If you think your account has been hacked, here’s how to deal with it.

Dealing with Hacked Facebook Accounts

Having your Facebook hacked is a major inconvenience with hackers often using your account to send spam to all your contacts, including malicious links. If you think you have been hacked then you can report it to Facebook.

Once you have your account back, change your password straight away and manually delete those spammy posts and links.

If you have been hacked www.facebook.com/hacked

Let us know if you have any more tips on Facebook scams and how to deal with them so we can share them with our users. Feel free to tweet and share this article to help spread the info.

-The Omniquad Team

Facebook was once the top dog of social media platforms and could seemingly do no wrong. That is, until it did. With issues surrounding privacy, security and controversy plus the fact that competition is hot on its heels in the form of the Google+, is Facebook still relevant to both business users and individuals? Does it still have the trust and loyalty of its members or are people hitting the ‘Unlike’ button on Facebook?

Facebook Facts

Facebook was launched in February 2004 and got off to a controversial start when the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was sued by 3 of his former University colleagues over claims that he stole their ideas for the site. The matter was settled in court with a million dollar payoff. The drama was subsequently made into a film in 2010 called The Social Network.

The site spread from Harvard University to almost all Universities in the US and Canada and eventually in 2006 Facebook was extended to everyone aged 13 or older.

In August 2008, just under a year since it was made available to everyone, Facebook had attracted 100,000 users and eventually hit the 1 billion mark in October 2012, however in December of that year, UK users for Facebook actually dropped by 600,000 according to monitoring firm SocialBakers so could the bubble finally be set to burst?

How Useful is Facebook for Businesses?

Facebook was originally set up for individuals to share information with friends but that soon expanded and businesses realised the true potential of reaching out to a network of millions of prospective customers.

Business users can create pages on Facebook and promote their posts in order to build up a following. Facebook also uses data to help generate targeted ads. Businesses can encourage people to follow their page and share their posts and it is a useful way for companies to reach out to their intended audience.

However businesses beware – there have been some epic company Facebook fails due to bad management of their Facebook page. The biggest failure was by Nestle when they innocently requested that fans do not use any altered Nestle logos as their profile pics. What ensued was a playground spat between Nestle and hundreds of followers which did not do the company’s credentials much good at all.

More common are disasters featuring companies who do not respond to customers’ complaints such as the Nature Valley Facebook page. When someone asked if they used GM crops in their ingredients, Nature Valley refused to respond. There was no evidence to say that they did but their failure to respond to that and subsequent comments caused chaos on their page and quickly turned viral.

The power of social media such as Facebook is not to be underestimated.

New Facebook Features

In order to keep the website updated and relevant, Facebook has rolled out several new features recently. In 2010 a brand new timeline profile was introduced with gives basic information about you such as where you are from, where you work, your relationship status, etc along with a row of the most recently tagged photos of you.

Friends can now also be listed in groups such as family members, work colleagues, sports teams and so on.

Perhaps Facebook is taking note of popular sites such as Pinterest and Vimeo as the news stream and timeline feeds are now more visually orientated with larger photos and expanded snippets from texts. And in response to a call for better news feeds, Mark Zuckerberg used the phrase “personalised newspaper” to describe the new look site.

A brand new feature called Graph Search will also enable users to search their friends’ feeds, so if you wanted to see school photos of your friends you just type it into the new search feature and all the old school photos of your friends will come up! You will only see information which has been made publicly available however, private photos will stay private.

Facebook Privacy Issues and Security Concerns

Facebook has had its share of privacy issues and the new Graph Search tool mentioned above is the latest concern. Critics say it could be used to discover compromising information about members such as political groups or religious affinities. Facebook have reminded people about checking their privacy settings but this is one of the main concerns about the new feature.  If you are a business whose employees use Facebook and join a controversial political or religious group then this information could potentially spell trouble for your company.

In 2011 around 200,000 profiles were reportedly hacked and their news fees and profile pictures were replaced with pornographic images and sexual content. Facebook denied the claims.

In January 2013 it was discovered that over 16000 Facebook credentials had been stolen by a botnet.  The ‘PokerAgent’ botnet was apparently designed to collect Facebook log-on credentials, also gathering information on credit card details linked to the Facebook account and in particular Zynga Poker player stats, presumably with the intention to rob the victims.

Other areas of concern centre around phishing scams and malicious links which trick users into downloading potentially harmful viruses.  (Look out for Part II; we will cover this separately, as the topic is so big. Meanwhile, have a look at earlier blogs about this here)

As critics point to the loss of users’ rights to vote on policy along with a possible saturation of the market and the drop in member numbers in the UK, could Facebook be falling out of favour with its users? Well it certainly has to watch its back because waiting quietly in the wings is the increasingly popular Google+.

To Sum up

In summary, Facebook is a victim of both its own success and its need to make money through advertising.  The platform has enjoyed phenomenal growth, but it now looks like the growth is slowing.  Although Facebook can reach users with highly targeted ads, it is uncertain how much effect they have, other than annoying the users they try to entice – the ads are intrusive and take up too much of prime space on the pages.   The question is: how much do Facebook users really want to engage with advertisers on a medium they have chosen to engage with friends and family?  There is a price to pay for enjoying the fun and social features of Facebook, but is it too big?

The biggest concern though is security.  Amid hacking concerns and recent security breaches, the far most annoying risk to the users is that Facebook as a platform has been unable or unwilling to tackle the problems of virus and worms that spread on the site like wildfire. There is not much they can do to stop email phishing scams, and fake emails posing as official notifications. Facebook has a help center where you can look up information about scams and fake notifications, but it is sadly lacking and cumbersome to use.  User must look elsewhere for detailed information about what to do or how to spot fake emails.

With Google + gaining in popularity, it would be advisable for Facebook to start looking into how to solve issues that affect  their users’ enjoyment of the site, rather than only trying appease the shareholders.  When Facebook users start closing their accounts, they will have more to worry about than just how to make money from advertising, there will be fewer users to advertise to!

How Secure is The Cloud?

The Evernote hack this past weekend forced 50 million users to reset their passwords and reflect on the significance of securing their online data. What good is storing your data in the Cloud if the provider is lax with security?  While a secure second copy of your data is always your best defense against data loss, it is of no use if your perceived precaution is in fact a risk of not just losing your data, but making it public and available.

It is a great reminder of how important a good password is. But it is also a stark reminder to ask your cloud provider some critical questions about their security.

After the security breach Evernote announced that it plans to adopt two-factor authentication as quickly as possible.

“We were already planning to roll out optional two-factor authentication to all of our users later this year,” said Evernote spokeswoman Ronda Scott via email to their customers. “We are accelerating those plans now.”  Should they not have thought about that before?

Read also eSecurity Planet: Evernote to Add Two-Factor Authentication Following Breach

Read also: Protecting your online security – Your guide to safe passwords

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Apple’s App Store lacking Encryption

CSO Online reports that  Apple’s App Store lacked encryption protection for months:

“Apple’s app store operated for months without the protection of SSL encryption, according to researchers.

Apple announced it had fixed the problem in January, but the researchers who discovered the flaw didn’t write about it until this month.”

The article is worth reading in full, as it gives a comprehensive overview of all the various ways in which users of the App store could be compromised.

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Theola malware uses a Chrome plugin for banking fraud

Welivesecurity reports “how Theola malware uses a Chrome plugin for banking fraud”
“Theola malware uses a Chrome plugin for banking fraud
Win32/Theola is one of the most malicious components of the notorious bootkit family, Win32/Mebroot.FX (known since 2007). The Theola family encompasses malicious browser plugins installed by Mebroot for banking fraud operations.

We have been tracking an increase in detections of these plugins since the end of January 2013. The countries where Theola is most commonly detected are the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Denmark and Czech Republic.”

Interesting reading for the technically minded.

(Win32/Mebroot.FX Removal information here)

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Finally … China claims it is willing to talk to U.S about Cybersecurity

“Responding to a U.S. request for “constructive direct dialogue” about cyberattacks, the Chinese government says it’s ready to sit down and talk.

The U.S. and China both say they want to directly discuss the issue of cybersecurity, but the odds of an open discussion are slim at best.”

from an article on Cnet News

Interesting reading in light of the hacking of major US newspapers at the beginning of the year.

Vimeo is a video sharing social media platform that had 14 million active members in December 2012 and has over 675 million visits a year. Not bad for a website that was first launched to a small audience at the end of 2004.

One of the major benefits of Vimeo is the high quality resolution and the fact that it supports HD, which makes even your shaky holiday video look like a Hollywood movie! Well ok, not quite but you get the idea.

The website’s profile has been boosted of late by some high profile activity. In 2009 Britney Spears used the platform to air her music video for the single Radar and the White House are regular users; sharing their broadcasts with Vimeo in high definition.

Vimeo now host the annual Vimeo awards for 13 categories including Advertising, Experimental, Music Video, Remix, Animation and so on.

How Does Vimeo Work?

You don’t have to be an expert film maker to use Vimeo. The dashboard is easy and simple to use and it has a fantastic help section that guides new users step by step. Unsurprisingly it also has video tutorials.

As well as uploading videos you can use basic edit features in Vimeo and there are guides done by Vimeo members and the site itself which are full of handy tips and hints on making your footage look professional. Members are advised to use a movie editing tool before uploading the video onto Vimeo if they want any advanced features and if you aren’t sure how to use your Windows or Mac movie editing program then Vimeo has a tutorial on this too!

The guides are written in simple, easy to understand language that appeals to beginners as well as more complex guides for advanced members.

Is Vimeo Free?

Vimeo used to be a free platform and members enjoyed unlimited uploads but with the arrival of Vimeo Plus and Vimeo Pro, basic accounts are now limited to:

• 500mb of upload space per week
• One HD video upload
• Users can have their own channel plus one group and 3 albums
• Upload up to 10 videos per day with basic embedding features

Vimeo Plus was launched in 2008 for the advanced user and this entitles them to an unlimited package, channels, groups and albums plus HD embeds and high quality video re-encoding. Vimeo Plus accounts will also be free from ads.

As Vimeo Plus users can upload up to 5 gigabytes of content (around 2.5 hours of playtime) this paves the way for full length HD movies to be screened on Vimeo. All this for around £39.50 a year.

Vimeo Pro is largely for business and commercial use at a cost of £140 a year. This offers advanced analytics, priority uploading, a commercial hosting option, full mobile, tablet and TV compatibility and more.

Vimeo for Business is the latest paid subscription option which allows for Dropbox integration, full 1080p HD and customisable video player.

Are There Any Security or Privacy Risks Associated With Vimeo?

Vimeo has addressed any privacy concerns by including comprehensive privacy settings which allow users to hide their activity stream and stats on their personal video page. Videos can also be marked as private and users can be blocked and reported.

Like any other social media platform, members have been targeted by phishing emails. These can be reported by members and Vimeo also warn people never to give out their account or personal details.

Security-wise Vimeo is a lot safer than YouTube for members as it’s easier to stay anonymous and keep your videos private but Vimeo does have a limited audience compared with YouTube so that classic video you just uploaded is unlikely to go viral. Yet this does appeal to more professional film-makers and as a viewer, you are much more likely to see arty videos and clever footage than say, a dog running after some deer.

You can read more about Vimeo’s privacy settings on their FAQ. It is well worth familiarizing yourself with security and privacy settings when opening an account on a social media or sharing site, in fact it should be compulsory!

- The Omniquad Team

Below we will show you how you can easily recognize a phishing email, just through hovering with your mouse and applying some common sense. It is easy once you know what to look out for.

Phishing emails are one of the most common ways for fraudsters to scam unsuspecting consumers.

LinkedIn has certainly become one of the most popular business-to-business social networking tools, some even say the site is replacing recruitment sites! Not surprisingly, it is becoming a target for phishing attempts.

This email, which masquerading as a member invitation from popular business focused social network LinkedIn, recipients are asked to click on a link ‘visit your InBox now’ to view the pending messages.

The email includes the LinkedIn logo and looks very similar to a genuine LinkedIn invitation message.

However, the message is not from LinkedIn. All of the links in the message lead to compromised websites that have no connection to LinkedIn.

Omniquad Security Research Labs found that the endpoint URL contains a criminal toolkit known as the BlackHole Exploit Kit. BlackHole is a web application used by criminals to exploit browser vulnerabilities as a means of downloading and installing Trojans and other types of malicious software into victim’s computer.

If an email contains a link and you’re unsure whether it’s legitimate, hover over it with your mouse to see what address it directs you to. To avoid being scammed read the below guide how to spot a scam and protect yourself from such type of phishing attacks.

In fact, LinkedIn has regularly been targeted in such malware and phishing attacks. Always ensure that LinkedIn messages are really from LinkedIn. Scam emails often use HTML to disguise links in their bogus messages. As you can see below screen shot, this email looks somewhat credible.

However, we can differentiate LinkedIn phishing email from a real LinkedIn email from the below screen shot:

A LinkedIn Phishing Email

The message body says:

LinkedIn Reminders

Invitation Reminders:

From Akshay Das (Senior Director, Business Development, Information & Media Division at The McGraw Hill Companies.)

Pending Messages

There are a total of 3 messages awaiting your response. Go to Inbox now (clickable link to malicious site)

• Take a look at the From Field in the screenshot, you can see that the mail is not originally coming from LinkedIn.
• The highlighted text that states ‘go to inbox now’ does not pointing to a true LinkedIn website.
• The highlighted text that states ‘go to inbox now’ does not pointing to true LinkedIn website.

So, to summarise, the sender is not LinkedIn, hovering over the clickable links reveals that the urls are not LinkedIn, but pointing to a Russian domain.

A quick search will reveal that McGraw Hill Companies is real, and there are several people named Akshay Das on the LinkedIn network, but none appear to work for McGraw Hill.  The scammers have used a real company and a real name to give their scam more credibility.

A Real LinkedIn Email

As you see in the real email from LinkedIn, the url pointing to LinkedIn website itself.

 The From Field in the screenshot tells you that the email is from ….@bounce.linkedin.com – a real LinkedIn email address.

The links in the screenshot shows the linkedin.com domain in the URLS when you hover over them with the mouse.

The Email Source

We would like to share the source code behind both the real and phishing emails.

Source code of the fake LinkedIn email:

You can see that the URL hiding in the code is http ://doctormusi.ru/templates/beez/track. php?c002   you see there is a tracking code at the end.  Tracking codes are strings of text added to the end of a URL which let you track the source of a click.

Source code of the real LinkedIn email:

You can see that the URL hiding in the code is http://www.linkedin.com, so clicking on links in real emails from LinkedIn is safe.

Phishing scams of this nature are all too common and, in spite of widespread publicity, they continue to fool people all around the world into handing over their financial and personal information. Legitimate banks and other financial institutions will never send their customers unsolicited, generic emails that request them to click a link to login and provide personal information.

Finally our mantra:

Tips to spot phishing emails:

• Request you to supply personal information directly into the e-mail or submit via online.
• Threatens to suspend or close your online accounts if you do not respond for the email.
• Claims that your account has been compromised or accessed by un authorized person.
• Requests you to enter, validate or verify your account information.
• States that there are unauthorized charges on your account and requests your account information.
• Claims that the bank has lost important security information and needs you to update your information online.
• Requires you to enter your card number, password, user ID or account numbers into an email.

Protect yourself from email frauds.

• Never click on Hyperlinks within emails, instead, copy and paste them into your browser.
• Do not open any file attached to the email.
• Always look for “https://” and padlock on web sites that require personal information.
• If you didn’t initiate a transaction to which an email is referring, it’s probably a scam.
• Never respond to spam / suspicious email or emails from unknown senders.
• Do not supply your personal / Bank account information to strangers, they are most likely scammers.
• Use spam filtering  software.

- The Omnqiuad Security Team