Fake "Bill Gates" Message Dupes Top Tools 117
yahoi writes with this excerpt from Dark Reading that might raise sysadmins' eyebrows about email security, in particular given the big names involved: "A researcher who conducted a successful spear-phishing experiment with a phony LinkedIn invitation from 'Bill Gates' is about to reveal the email products and services that failed to filter the spoofed message — and that list includes Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft Exchange, Outlook Express, and Cisco IronPort. ... The experiment was aimed at measuring the effectiveness of email security controls in several major products and services. And the simplicity and success of the test demonstrated just how powerful social engineering can be and what little technology can actually do about it, security experts say."
Now, now! (Score:3, Funny)
Little technology (Score:5, Funny)
"...And the simplicity and success of the test demonstrated just how powerful social engineering can be and what little technology can actually do about it, security experts say."
Okay, I give up. What can little technology actually do about it? Is that like nanotechnology, but bigger?
Yes, I was bored. Back to work!
Re:so? (Score:3, Funny)
Right. Much better to delete a message just because it came from LinkedIn.
Re:so? (Score:4, Funny)
You know the famous one doesn't have a monopoly on that name, right?
Well, it would be rather fitting if he did.
Re:Old news (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah I hate the way anybody can just walk past my house and drop stuff in the letterbox. I would be much happier if the federal government vetted everything so I could just fly to Canberra to collect my safe, filtered mail.
Re:so? (Score:5, Funny)
Okay Michael Bolton.. Your right, why should you have to change, he's the one that sucks...
Re:What a crap story (Score:5, Funny)
If computers could magically detect bullshit the way this journalist thinks they ought to be able to, I'd have them filtering the goddamned newspaper.
Re:This is nothing new (Score:3, Funny)
The postal service has a website too.
Re:This is research? Where's the beef? (Score:2, Funny)
Now excuse me, I have to get back to forwarding Bill's email I got to 20 people so have I have a chance at the million dollar prize.
Wow you're lucky! In Mexico, Bill Gates was about to close down hotmail.mx but thanks to everyone forwarding that e-mail MS saw that people used it and prevented its closure! Too bad they didn't have a chance at that prize...
Re:Pretty much anything from linkedin is spam. (Score:3, Funny)
LinkedIn has ALWAYS been crappy, in my opinion.
I got an invitation to join this wonderful networking site years ago. I checked out the site. My top competitor was on there, and he had befriended a bunch of clients. I grabbed them, and called the clients, and landed business with several of them. My competitor didn't know what hit him.
Yeah, watch out who you share your Outlook Contact list with. Geez, that should be a guarded secret, not a free-for-all posted on the internet!
Not too obvious.. (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, that would have fooled me. It would have been more tricky if they'd added something like: