Asterisk Vishing Attacks "Endemic"

Ian Lamont writes "Remember the report last year that the FBI was concerned about a 'vishing' exploit relating to the Asterisk IP PBX software? Digium played down the report, noting that it was based on a bug that had already been patched, but now the company's open-source community director says that attacks on Asterisk installations are 'endemic.' There have been dozens of reported vishing attacks in recent weeks, says the article: 'The victims typically bank with smaller regional institutions, which typically have fewer resources to detect scams. Scammers hack into phone systems and then call victims, playing prerecorded messages that say there has been a billing error or warn them that the bank account has been suspended because of suspicious activity. If the worried customer enters his account number and ATM password, the bad guys use that information to make fake debit cards and empty their victim's bank accounts.'"

Re:Vishing?

[CannonballHead]

I'm sure we could come up with a better term than "vishing".

Like voice phishing? ;)

Fishing, phishing, vishing, what's next?

[noidentity]

Fast-forward to 2109... ghoting [wikipedia.org] attacks are on the rise, but nobody knows what the hell they are.

Re:Vishing?

[jittles]

Actually, the attack is named after my Indian friend Vishal. But everyone calls him Vish. No really, I didn't just make this up.

Re:Usage guide

[hcpxvi]

voosh? (surely?)

Re:Vishing?

[MiniMike]

What's next, we're going to call telemarketers "vammers"? And we'll call phreakers "vackers"?

How about varmints [merriam-webster.com] and pharmints?

Telemarketers don't deserve a new word, especially when an existing one fits so well. Phreakers at least are exhibiting some level of skill, even if it is in a somewhat antisocial manner (so I assume, at least).

undoing moderation

[Rashan]

positing to undo incorrect moderation. nothing to see here, move along...

Re:I got one of those calls.

[ColdWetDog]

I hung up and immediately called the FBI. I'm glad they are actually doing something about it.

If you're like me (and most of Slashdot), you don't need to call the FBI at all. Just look straight into the webcam and tell them what the problem is.

Don't believe the naysayers that tell you that government is inefficient.

Re:Vishing?

[jo42]

"Vishing" is what it is called when Vishnu [wikipedia.org] goes fishing [wikipedia.org].

Vishing and hoping

[lennier]

'Vishing', eh? Vot are we going to call 'video phishing'?

Pishing?

Re:Phone Phishing

[misof]

Yeah, but if you keep the current naming scheme, you get to call the incompetent bank employees "vankers" :)