Are you really safe on the web?
Posted on April 11, 2008 | Categorized under Internet
Just a few days back, I received an interesting email from Bank of America! Yes, financial nerds too can send interesting messages; for a change may be, can’t they? Oh! come on! life can’t be that funny! … the message wasn’t really from them; it was rather made as if it was though! And, the interesting part began with the subject line itself - “Security Notice From Our Security Team“. Now who could possibly ignore such an email? So I opened it too!
The message read as -
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Like what anyone else would do, I naturally clicked on “sign in to Online Banking” link. It then took me to a log-in page, quite as expected -
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Now here I am staring at the login page. A strange feeling starts creeping in! Something is missing on this page! … but I am not sure what is it? My eyes are subconsciously searching for that something but just aren’t able see it. And might be so, I am not quite inclined to enter my credentials right away. A few more moments goes by and comes a sudden realization! … a moment that brings all the consciousness and intelligence in the universe at a single point (located somewhere near my desk) and warns me - “Security Alert! Don’t do it!! You’re about to loose all your life’s savings with a click!!!” My inner voice starts yelling out loud! What is it? What is that really missing from this page? After a few look-ups in both the hemispheres of my brain, I hit the answer … Oh! yes, its the goddamn SiteKey! - Bank of America provides a SiteKey to their online users, precisely as a measure against phishing - a fraud to steal your online credentials! And that precisely saved me today!
Well, keeping the humor and a bit of exaggeration apart, don’t such events create even a slightest of paranoia about this internet platform in your mind? How safe are we really on the web? Today, we trust this system to carry our many of our financial tasks with convenience. But is it really worthy of such a blind trust? Aren’t we crowded by so many bad spiders around? In fact, many of our day-to-day activities like banking, bill payments, buying commodities or even some long term financial plans like future investments have become common online transactions now a days, aren’t they? But there is possibility of someone tracking and logging your online activities — that can later be exploited in some unexpected way. Now, as a software engineer, I have studied basics of computer network security and pretty much aware of phishing techniques; but what about the large non-techie population out there? Are they really safe today? I’ll certainly think thrice before saying so.
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These kind of mails have become too common.Recently I got a fwd(yes ppl still fwd mails),where you could check whether the IT dept of India would return any amount.It asked for details like pan no etc.Imagine all the guys who actually believed and entered their pers info.
The best option is to keep your spam filter to high or use a tool like spam bayes.
Or check with sites like ‘truth or fiction’ etc…