David Bilinsky, the practice management advisor and staff lawyer for the Law Society of British Columbia, recently blogged about a "spear-phishing" attack involving the legal community. Phishers sent emails to executives that purported to be U.S. federal court subpoenas.
Wisconsin
Lawyer
Vol. 81, No. 6, June
2008
Legal community hit by phishing
David Bilinsky, the practice management advisor and staff lawyer for
the Law Society of
British Columbia, recently blogged about a "spear-phishing"
attack involving the legal
community. Phishers sent emails to executives that purported to be U.S.
federal court subpoenas.
Phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire
sensitive information, such
as user names, passwords, and credit card details, by masquerading as a
trustworthy entity in
an electronic communication. PayPal, eBay, and online banks are common
targets. Phishing
is typically carried out by email or instant messaging and often directs
users to enter
details at a Web site, although phone contact also has been used.
As phishing attempts grow more sophisticated, it is becoming
difficult to
distinguish between legitimate and dangerous emails. One of the latest
tricks has been dubbed
"spear phishing," which is carefully crafted and targeted at
particular individuals.
When the executives clicked a link within the "subpoena,"
their computers were infected
with malware that gathered personal information including passwords and
credit card
numbers. Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer
system without the
owner's informed consent.
What can you do? Commercial anti-virus and anti-spam software may
help reduce your risk
to some extent, but the number one safeguard is caution. Be wary of
emails from senders you
don't know. Review emails carefully for suspicious misspellings or
obvious errors, and
avoid clicking links or downloading files if you are not confident that
they are safe.
Source: ABA Site-tation, from the ABA Legal Technology Resource
Center found on
WisBar's Practice411 Advice Alert.
Wisconsin
Lawyer
