Lesson on MISP - Computer Security

Cyber crime is a big issue of company's risk management. To avoid the risk company should think ahead instead of react after disaster happening. Most of the time we know how to fix the problem when the company's server being hacked. However, the key issue is to gather evidence to find out the source of the problem. This is what I learnt from today's MISP (manage information system & project) tutorial.

At the same time, we were recommended to read the book High-tech crime revealed that it will be available in the library soon.

P.S. Today Bruce Schneier wrote a blog entry about 'Unicode URL Hack'. The principle of hacking is very simple. Anyone can use the Unicode character to substitute the letter of normal URL that can direct people to a fake website. At the same time, the URL from the address bar and status link shows normal. People might not know that is a fake one and type their credit card number and password as usual. He cites www.paypal.com as an example:

Here's a demo: it's a Web page that appears to be www.paypal.com but is not PayPal. Everything from the address bar to the hover-over status on the link says www.paypal.com.

It works by substituting a Unicode character for the second "a" in PayPal. That Unicode character happens to look like an English "a," but it's not an "a." The attack works even under SSL.

Here's the source code of the link: http://www.pаypal.com/

I tried it by using Firefox and the problem really exists. Secunia gives a solution for the risk:

• Don't follow links from untrusted sources.
• Manually type the URL in the address bar.

[last modified: 2005-2-16 21:11]