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This is a good idea.
The built anti-phishing capability warns users when they come across Web forgeries, and offers to return the user to his or her home page. Meanwhile, microsummaries are regularly updated summaries of Web pages, small enough to fit in the space available to a bookmark label, but large enough to provide more useful information about pages than static page titles, and are regularly updated as new information becomes available.
Here’s a report of phishers defeating two-factor authentication using a man-in-the-middle attack.
The site asks for your user name and password, as well as the token-generated key. If you visit the site and enter bogus information to test whether the site is legit—a tactic used by some security-savvy people—you might be fooled. That’s because this site acts as the “man in the middle”—it submits data provided by the user to the actual Citibusiness login site. If that data generates an error, so does the phishing site, thus making it look more real.
I predicted this last year.
Abstract:
To build systems shielding users from fraudulent (or phishing) websites, designers need to know which attack strategies work and why. This paper provides the first empirical evidence about which malicious strategies are successful at deceiving general users. We first analyzed a large set of captured phishing attacks and developed a set of hypotheses about why these strategies might work. We then assessed these hypotheses with a usability study in which 22 participants were shown 20 web sites and asked to determine which ones were fraudulent. We found that 23% of the participants did not look at browser-based cues such as the address bar, status bar and the security indicators, leading to incorrect choices 40% of the time. We also found that some visual deception attacks can fool even the most sophisticated users. These results illustrate that standard security indicators are not effective for a substantial fraction of users, and suggest that alternative approaches are needed.
Here’s an article on the paper.
Read about it here, or in even more detail.
I find this phishing attack impressive for several reasons. One, it’s a very sophisticated attack and demonstrates how clever identity thieves are becoming. Two, it narrowly targets a particular credit union, and sneakily uses the fact that credit cards issued by an institution share the same initial digits. Three, it exploits an authentication problem with SSL certificates. And four, it is yet another proof point that “user education” isn’t how we’re going to solve this kind of risk.
Interesting paper:
Zooko’s Triangle argues that names cannot be global, secure, and memorable, all at the same time. Domain names are an example: they are global, and memorable, but as the rapid rise of phishing demonstrates, they are not secure.
Though no single name can have all three properties, the petname system does indeed embody all three properties. Informal experiments with petname-like systems suggest that petnames can be both intuitive and effective. Experimental implementations already exist for simple extensions to existing browsers that could alleviate (possibly dramatically) the problems with phishing. As phishers gain sophistication, it seems compelling to experiment with petname systems as part of the solution.
Although I think I’ve seen the trick before:
Phishing schemes are all about deception, and recently some clever phishers have added a new layer of subterfuge called the secure phish. It uses the padlock icon indicating that your browser has established a secure connection to a Web site to lull you into a false sense of security. According to Internet security company SurfControl, phishers have begun to outfit their counterfeit sites with self-generated Secure Sockets Layer certificates. To distinguish an imposter from the genuine article, you should carefully scan the security certificate prompt for a reference to either “a self-issued certificate” or “an unknown certificate authority.”
Yeah, like anyone is going to do that.
I’ve repeatedly said that two-factor authentication won’t stop phishing, because the attackers will simply modify their techniques to get around it. Here’s an example where that has happened:
Scandinavian bank Nordea was forced to shut down part of its Web banking service for 12 hours last week following a phishing attack that specifically targeted its paper-based one-time password security system.
According to press reports, the scam targeted customers that access the Nordea Sweden Web banking site using a paper-based single-use password security system.
A blog posting by Finnish security firm F-Secure says recipients of the spam e-mail were directed to bogus Web sites but were also asked to enter their account details along with the next password on their list of one-time passwords issued to them by the bank on a “scratch sheet”.
From F-Secure’s blog:
The fake mails were explaining that Nordea is introducing new security measures, which can be accessed at www.nordea-se.com or www.nordea-bank.net (fake sites hosted in South Korea).
The fake sites looked fairly real. They were asking the user for his personal number, access code and the next available scratch code. Regardless of what you entered, the site would complain about the scratch code and asked you to try the next one. In reality the bad boys were trying to collect several scratch codes for their own use.
The Register also has a story.
Two-factor authentication won’t stop identity theft, because identity theft is not an authentication problem. It’s a transaction-security problem. I’ve written about that already. Solutions need to address the transactions directly, and my guess is that they’ll be a combination of things. Some transactions will become more cumbersome. It will definitely be more cumbersome to get a new credit card. Back-end systems will be put in place to identify fraudulent transaction patterns. Look at credit card security; that’s where you’re going to find ideas for solutions to this problem.
Unfortunately, until financial institutions are liable for all the losses associated with identity theft, and not just their direct losses, we’re not going to see a lot of these solutions. I’ve written about this before as well.
We got them for credit cards because Congress mandated that the banks were liable for all but the first $50 of fraudulent transactions.
EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a related story. The Bank of New Zealand suspended Internet banking because of phishing concerns. Now there’s a company that is taking the threat seriously.
Here’s a phishing scam using an SMS message and a telephone call.
My third Wired column is on line. It’s about phishing.
Financial companies have until now avoided taking on phishers in a serious way, because it’s cheaper and simpler to pay the costs of fraud. That’s unacceptable, however, because consumers who fall prey to these scams pay a price that goes beyond financial losses, in inconvenience, stress and, in some cases, blots on their credit reports that are hard to eradicate. As a result, lawmakers need to do more than create new punishments for wrongdoers—they need to create tough new incentives that will effectively force financial companies to change the status quo and improve the way they protect their customers’ assets.
EDITED TO ADD: There’s a discussion on Slashdot.
The Honeynet Project has released a new paper on phishing, describing the tools and techniques used by phishers. Interesting technical reading.
Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.