ICT & Crime
Data theft, phishing & pharming
Data loss/theft
Data is often the most valuable commodity any
business has. The cost of creating data again from
scratch can far outweigh the cost of any hardware
or programs lost. Loss of data can have serious
consequences for a business.
Data can be stolen either by:
•physical theft of hardware
•or through unauthorised access to the system
e.g. hacking.
Activity 1 (10 minutes)
With your partner, think of as many ways as
you can in which this could affect your
business.
How do you think you could have prevented
this from happening?
Introduction
Computer crime is defined as 'criminal activity
directly related to the use of computers'.
Last lesson we looked the use of computers to
steal money.
Data theft can be even more serious than the theft
of money. There are a number of ways in which
data can be stolen, specifically:
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Physical theft of equipment
Hacking
Phishing
Pharming
Physical theft of equipment
Businesses can use a range of
physical methods to protect their
systems and data. Some of these
include:
•Keeping important computers such as
servers or mainframes in locked rooms
•Posting security guards
•Security locks, smart cards
•Keeping sensitive data on stand-alone
machines instead of networks
•Using alarm systems and video
cameras
Hackers & hacking
What is a hacker?
A hacker is a person who breaks codes
and passwords to gain unauthorised
entry to computer systems.
Who is at risk?
Computers which form part of networks or
those with external links, such as
attached modems, are in danger from
hackers. Stand-alone computers are
usually safe as there is no connection
for the hackers to break into.
Why do hackers hack?
• curiosity
• challenge - can they get through the
system’s defences?
• to access data, usually because the data
has value
• to steal financial information such as your
credit card number, or the password to
your bank account, in order to use that
information to make purchases.
Protect yourself against hackers
• Use strong passwords to protect your user
login account
• Never reveal your login password to anyone
else
• Place a firewall between your computer and any
network
• Disconnect from networks (eg the internet)
when you are not using them
• Encrypt any sensitive information (just in case
they get in)
Phishing
• This is where a user is
tricked into entering
their user name &
password to a fake
website.
• The website looks like
their bank/ebay/paypal
website, but belongs
to a hacker.
• Watch this movie:
Phishing scams in
Plain English
What is phishing?
•Phishing is a form of identity theft, where
fraudsters steal your identity and personal
information to gain access to your accounts or
commit other crimes using your persona.
• In brief, a 'phishing' email is one that pretends to be from
a company or bank like eBay, PayPal, your bank etc
• It usually asks you to enter your account data, such as
login details.
• These scams are often supported by fake spoof
websites, and victims are tricked into thinking they are
logging to a real website.
Other scams:
• http://www.aboutpaypal.org/ebay_phishing_
email
• This uses some quite threatening
language to persuade users to follow the
link.
Other methods can be less threatening:
Phishing: Protecting yourself
• If you receive a suspicious email, check
websites such as
http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/
• http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/articles.php
Pharming
What is it?
"Pharming" is the term for when criminal hackers
redirect Internet traffic from one Web site to a
different, identical-looking site in order to trick
you into entering your user name and password
into the database on their fake site.
Why do they do it?
Criminals try to acquire your personal
information in order to access your bank
account, steal your identity, or commit other
kinds of fraud in your name, so banking and
similar financial sites are often the targets of
these attacks.
Pharming vs Phishing
Pharming might sound
similar to e-mail
phishing scams, but
pharming is more
insidious, because you
can be redirected to a
false site without any
participation or
knowledge on your
part.
How does pharming work?
• A hacker attacks a DNS server
• The hacker redirects traffic from the real
website to his own fraudulent site
• The user types in the web address of the
real site
• They are instead taken to the fake site –
usually a bank or other ecommerce site.
• Pharming is a highly sophisticated
extension of phishing that can direct you to
fake websites that look identical to the real
ones, and then steal your identity, infest
your computer with annoying adware, and
attack your computer with damaging
viruses.
Plenary (5 minutes)
Read some of the news stories here:
http://www.teachict.com/news/news_stories/news_dataloss.ht
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