IUTI bank, one of the leading banks in India has changed
its name to 'Axis'. And who better than phishers know
to fish in the muddy waters of confusion! Security experts
at MicroWorld Technologies warn that a spammed email
is trying to loot the bank's customers in the backdrop
of the name change.
Like most Phishing mails targeted at Indian banks,
this one too talks about a security upgrade. What
you see at the top bar of the mail is an image which
says, "UTI bank is now Axis Bank, Everything
is the same except the name'. And it's a straight
lift from the actual redirect page that appears when
you key in 'utibank.com' in the address bar of the
browser.
The content of the mail is as follows;
Dear Customer,
Axis Bank Internet Banking, is here by announcing
the New Security Upgrade.
We've upgraded our new SSL servers to serve our customers
for a better and
secure banking service, against any fraudulent activities.
Due to this recent upgrade,
you are requested to update your account information
by
following the reference below.
Reference*
https://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If your account information is not updated within
48 hours then your ability to access
your account will become restricted.
Thank you.
Axis Bank Account Review Department
"The Phishing website linked to the mail is
already taken down by the hosting firm. However you
can't wish away the probability of the same mail bouncing
back with a new Phishing website hosted somewhere
else," observes Sunil Kripalani, Vice President,
Global Sales and Marketing, MicroWorld Technologies.
"What's interesting here is the perfect criminal
timing of the mail. When you have a big bank changing
its name, naturally there's bound to be some confusion
among its customers. A naive customer might think
that the security update is a part of the bank's name
changing process," he adds.
The success of a Phishing scam depends largely on
the Social Engineering tactic used in it. The idea
is to get as many people as possible to click on the
link in the mail and follow the instructions without
thinking much. And phishers experiment with shock,
lure or scare to achieve this end.
"Phishing has advanced much in technology as
well. A computer infected with a Phishing Trojan can
redirect a user to a fraudulent website even if he
keys in the actual URL of the bank in the browser!
This method is called pharming and it can only be
countered by protecting computers with a proactive
security solution," points out Sunil Kripalani.
MicroWorld Technologies makes advanced AntiVirus,
AntiSpam and Content Security solutions to counter
all sorts of online threats. While eScan from MicroWorld
tackles Phishing, Pharming and Spamming at the server
and desktop level, its other product, MailScan, provides
security at the Mail Server level.
