"Phishing" on the "Pharm": How Thieves Combine Two Techniques to Steal Your Identity

"Phishing" on the "Pharm": How Thieves Combine Two Techniques to Steal Your Identity
Bob squinted at the email and began to read:
"Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification�"
Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent "fraudulent activity". The email went on to say that there were "procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us."
Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn't know.
He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been "set up" by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to glance at the URL.
There was something very, very wrong with it.
"PHARMING" TO FLEECE SHEEP
The art of "pharming" involves setting up an illegitimate website that is identical with its legitimate prototype, for example the ebay page Bob was almost suckered into using, and redirecting traffic to it.
"Pharmers" can do it in two ways:
1. By altering the "Hosts" file on your computer. The Hosts file stores the IP address of websites you have been accessing. By inserting a new IP address into the database field corresponding to a website, your own computer can be redirected to the pharmer's website. Any information you give the bogus site is immediately hijacked by the pharmer.
2. Hijacking the DNS (Dynamic Name Server) itself. A DNS matches the names of address with their IP addresses. If this server can be coerced into assigning new IP addresses to traditional names, all computers using the name resolution provided by the DNS server will be redirected to the hijacker's web site.
Once that happens, it's time to be fleeced.
DOWN ON THE PHARM
"Pharmers" hijack your "hosts" file or DNS servers using Spyware, Adware, Viruses or Trojans. One of the most dangerous things you can do is to run your computer without some form of Internet Security installed on it.
Your security software should be continually updating its virus definitions, and be capable of warning you if something has been downloaded from a web site or through email. It should be able to remove it, "quarantine it", or tell you where it is so that you can remove it by hand.
You should also have Spyware and Adware programs installed, and be aware of any change in Internet browsing patterns. If your home page suddenly changes, or you experience advertising pop ups (which may pop up even when you are not hooked up to the Internet), you should run a Virus, Spyware or Adware scan.
Thanks to the efficacy of these protection programs, pharming is a lot more difficult than it used to be. It isn't as easy to hijack a computer as it once was.
So, the "pharmers" have teamed up with the "phishermen" to get you to visit the bogus web page yourself, and enter all the information they need.
PHISHING TO CATCH YOU ON THE PHARM
As Bob discovered, the page he had been taken to by the bogus email message was identical to the ebay logon page. Identical in every way except for the URL.
Out of curiosity, he checked the URL for the ebay logon by accessing ebay directly and clicking on the logon link. The two URL's were nothing alike, except the bogus one did have the word "ebay" in it twice � just enough to make it look authentic.
By combining the two techniques, the phishermen/pharmers had avoided the high tech problems associated with downloading a Virus that could get past his protection software. They had gone straight for the throat.
Bob's throat.
YOUR ONLY REAL IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
The bottom line is that the only real protection against the pharmers and phishermen is YOU. There are three things you must consider when you read any email demanding information:
� Why do they want it? Be extremely skeptical when they say they have to "update their records", "comply with federal regulations", or prevent fraud. They are the ones initiating the fraud.
� Why can't this be done at the website? Why not invite you to access the website directly and provide this information? The answer is because the bonafide company doesn't need an update.
� What does the URL look like? Is it a series of subdomains some of which have the name of the bonafide company? Most likely the subdomain is set up with a free hosting company.
� Have they provided partial information about you as a guarantee that the email authentically comes from the legitimate source? Be very careful of this one. This technique is effective for "pretexting", impersonating a person or company, and was used in the Hewlett Packard scandal to collect information. Just because they know your first and last name (and any other information � known only to the legitimate source) doesn't mean the email is legitimate. They probably hijacked the information off the server.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line is: don't provide any information at the behest of an email, no matter how authentic it looks, or how authentic the page it directs you to looks. If you must log in, do so at the parent site itself.
Your Identity Theft prevention and protection is, in the final analysis, up to you.
Don't be the next sheep fleeced by the pharmers who caught you with the phisherman's hook. Being dropped naked into their frying pan is NOT a fate you want.
Copyright 2006 John Young

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God-given Names

I was born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel (with the help of my Jewish lawyer) during the Spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.
It also required that I take out a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intentions 30 days beforehand. I placed my ad in the Bowling Green Sentinel.
I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on what county you were born) for him to privately question my motivations. He was assured by my lawyer that I wasn�t running from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge accepted that but wanted to impress upon me that I could have "trouble" with that name in America, without elaborating. I felt he meant because it was Jewish and/or could be difficult for some to know how to pronounce. I told him I wasn�t concerned about it since I planned on moving to Israel anyway.
My reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. Why? Because I honestly feel that Ben-Ariel is a God-given name. And why would I feel that way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I went home wondering what surname I would have in Israel, knowing my first name is already Hebrew.
I had always liked the Hebrew last name of Ben-Ammi, after reading it in Leon Uris� book Exodus, since it means "son of my people," but while thinking about it and wondering what name my father would�ve given me, if he would�ve given me a Hebrew name, I didn�t know. I then knelt down in prayer and asked God what name, IF ANY, would He give me since He's my Heavenly Father, and I couldn�t ask my dad because he died when I was twelve.
I expected God to perhaps lead or guide or influence me to like a particular name, but immediately ARIEL flashed into my mind and immediately I rejected it. Why? Because it means "the Lion of God" and I felt such a name only belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While wondering about the name of Ariel, I remembered that Israel�s defense minister was Ariel Sharon (whom I�ve since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name in reserve (since it was really impressed upon me!) until God or circumstances might lead me to accept another, and went to bed.
The Bible mentions MANY INCIDENTS where God chose to change someone�s name or to name them before their birth. It is unusual but it�s not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Gen. 16:11); Solomon (I Chron. 22:9) and Solomon�s nickname Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Lk. 1:13); Jesus (Matt. 1:21); Peter and the two brothers James and John whom Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder" (Mk. 3:16-17); just to name a few.
God promises to give us each a new and unique name in the Kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current one (Rev. 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus� new name and bearing the Father�s name as Priest-Kings (Rev. 3:12, 14; Ex. 28:36; Lev. 8:9). God has many name or titles, descriptive of His wonderful qualities and characteristics (Isa. 9:6). The Jews even teach that God�s Hebrew name Elohim (literally Gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be constrained to one name, and is used in the sense of the royal "We." That�s why Elohim said "let us...." We understand that it�s also because there�s presently two God-Beings in the one Kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people who both shared the surname Adam as one family unit (Gen. 2:24; 5:2; Jn. 10:30).
God has His reasons why He would change someone�s name and who are we to question Him? The April 1980 issue of the Good News magazine carried an article called "History of the Church" that helps us to understand why Jesus changed Simon�s name to Peter: "...and He gave him a surname prophetic of the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually demonstrate. Jesus bestowed upon him the new name, before he had earned it that it might be an incentive to him to realize what Jesus had expected."
After going to bed, about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 flashed into my mind. What�s amazing is that I had never memorized that Scripture! It reveals that Ariel is a nickname for JERUSALEM! I now understand why God the Father had chosen Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows that Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jer. 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980. God has shown me that He�s stirred me up and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isa. 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me a "SON OF JERUSALEM."
I got out of bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for truly knowing us inside and out, just like His Word says, and embraced the new name God had given me! I also accepted it as a SPIRITUAL GOAL: to live worthy of one named after holy Jerusalem and all that it ideally represents.
I end my prayers facing Jerusalem every night with "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its calling (2 Chron. 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10). Later, I began to understand how Ariel can also refer to Judah and King David. Since my family tree is traced back to the British and Scottish Royal Families (the Royal House of David) it�s also befitting that Ben-Ariel can mean "son of David" and "son of Judah" (whose tribal emblem is the lion).
I�m convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my forefather David, has blessed me with the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel for myself - which I did not, I originally objected to it - there wouldn�t be any harm in that since such a practice is Biblical: "One shall say, I am the LORD�S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa. 44:5).
God surnamed me Ariel back around 1982, however it wasn�t until 1989 that I finally changed my name legally. I knew that even though God had given me the name that I didn�t necessarily have to change my name. I was also hesitant to do so because I am the only son and the only Hoover males alive (that I�m aware of) were my grandfather and myself. I didn�t want the name to die out, not that I�m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures His "eunuchs" that we�ll be given excellent and eternal names - Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover was possibly an Anglicized form of the German Huber (since many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).
I also didn�t want to hurt or offend my grandfather or possibly get disinherited, but I made up my mind that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, starting a new chapter in our family history, I was going to take the lead and change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the fact, unaware of what I planned to do. So now I�ve been David Ben-Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.

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