Subject: LHC Narrowly Averts Black Hole Hackers - From fake email subject lines to news hoaxes about security
Risks in the News
posted by ScottWright on Sunday, September 14th 2008 @ 7:47 AM
The headline in the first part of this email's subject line is an example of what might show up in your inbox or your online news reader someday.
For some time, now, spammers and hackers have been using "social engineering" techniques to get people to read headlines, click on links and generally trick people into visiting sites or opening dangerous files in order to gain control of their computer systems or identity information.
As a sort of evolution of criminal creativity, untrustworthy news sources are starting to create compelling news headlines based on very little real information to get people moving into mass hysteria, forwarding news stories and links to friends they care about.
The problem is that there is much less effort being put into verifying stories, and just as we start to sensitize people to risks, these stories cause them to over-react. When a headline hits a less-than-thorough news provider, it gets picked up by bloggers and other less-than-thorough news providers. Before you know it, a hoax, or inflated risk can seem real.
A good example this week is that of the hackers who supposedly hacked into the website for the Large Hadron Collider - the particle physics experiment that just started up in Europe. In fact, it's very unlikely that the hackers got anywhere near the systems that control the massively expensive and powerful experiment. Stories claim that the hackers were "one step away" from the control systems. I very much doubt that they had any chance of successfully reaching the control systems.
But the news outlets like to hook you with a story that makes you wonder. This was a simple, harmless story. But if people don't start vetting their news sources before taking action, there is a risk that their good intentions will cause damage to their friends' computers.
So, before you or your staff start forwarding the latest news headline (whether from a website or an email they received), make sure they check it out with a respected news source to make sure it isn't a hoax. Although there may not be a serious immediate computer threat in forwarding shocking news stories, valuable work time and computer network resources can be wasted.
If you aren't sure of whether a purported risk is real or not, why not check it out here, at The Streetwise Security Zone? Send me a private message (ScottWright), or post a question in the "Q&A" or "Risks in the News" forums. | 
