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Our Annual Black Friday/Safe Shopping Post

Hard to believe we’ve been around to post this yet a third time, but here you go. Our list of advice for shopping safely online this year; and we even updated it this time: Yes folks, Black Friday is only days away and the silly season is upon us. As someone born and bred in good old North Jersey (until I could legally escape), land of honey and shopping malls, this is a time so deeply ingrained into my subconscious that I’ve occasionally found myself sleepwalking around the nearest parking lot, looking for our old wood-paneled station wagon. These days, thanks to the wonder of the Internet, anyone can experience the hustle and bustle of the Paramus malls from the comfort of their own home. And to help keep your shopping experience authentic, there’s no shortage of cheats and thieves ready to yank your painstakingly chosen gifts right out of the virtual trunk of your web browser. Of course they might take your house with them, which, even in Jersey (despite the legends) is somewhat rare. In the spirit of safe and happy holidays, Securosis presents our top 6 tips for safe online shopping, simply presented for the technical or non-technical consumer. Some of these tips also apply to the real world for those of you who just can’t restrain the draw to the mall. Spread the fun, and feel free to post your own tips in the comments. Use a dedicated credit card, temporary credit card number, or PayPal account for holiday shopping. Our first tip is also useful for the physical world- still the origin of most credit card fraud. Take your card with the lowest limit and use it exclusively for holiday shopping. Use one you can monitor online, and check the activity daily through the holidays (weekly at a minimum). Make sure it isn’t a debit card, and turn off any automatic payments (so you can dispute any charges before making payments). Keep tracking activity at least weekly for 12 months after the holidays are over, or cancel the card. DON”T USE A DEBIT CARD!!! These don’t have the same protections as credit cards, and you’re responsible for fraudulent charges. As for temporary credit cards or PayPal, read on to our second tip. Only use credit cards at major online retailers; use a PayPal debit account or temporary credit card for smaller shops . Sure, you might get a better deal from Billy-Bobs-Bait-Shop-And-Diamond-Wholesaler.com, but many smaller retailers don’t follow appropriate security practices. Those hosted with a major service are often okay, but few consumers really want to check the pedigree for specialty shops. Instead, create a dedicated PayPal account that’s not linked to any of your bank accounts or credit cards. Credit it with as much cash as you think you need and use it for those riskier online payments. Worst case, you only lose what’s in that account, and you can easily cancel it anytime. Another option, depending on your credit card company, is a temporary credit card number for online shopping. These are single use, or single retailer/session numbers that can’t be used again or leveraged to run up your account. Charges still appear on your same bill and are tied to your main credit card account. Check with your credit card company to see if they offer this service, but most of the major card issuers have it as an option. I like these better than account passwords (e.g. Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode) since they work everywhere, and you don’t have to worry about anyone sniffing them. Never, ever, ever ,ever click on ANYTHING in email. It doesn’t matter if your best friend sent you a really good deal in email. It doesn’t matter if it’s your favorite retailer and you’ve always gotten email offers from them. Repeat after me, “I will never click on anything in email.” No special offers. No Ebay member to member emails. No “fraud alerts” to check your account. No nothing. Ever. Nada. Attackers are getting more and more refined in their attacks, some of which are very hard to distinguish from legitimate emails. Spam waves over the holidays are expected to break records this year. When you see an interesting offer in email, and it’s a business you want to deal with, just open your web browser, type in the address manually, and browse to the item, offer, or account area. Email is the single biggest source of online fraud; never click on anything in email! Update your browser- use Firefox 3.1, IE 7 or 8, Safari 3.2.1, or Opera 9.6. Turn on the highest security settings. Over the past few months or so we’ve seen big updates of all the major browsers to include enhanced security features. Since the Safari update last week, all major browsers include features to help detect fraudulent sites- if you see a warning, shut down the browser and don’t go back to that site. All of these browsers will ask you before installing any software when you visit a site; when shopping, never allow the site to install anything. Either it’s a fraud or they don’t deserve your business. Pay particular attention to plugins to watch video, or free games unless you know it’s a trusted site (both are usually trojans). Most browsers now install with security enabled by default, so we won’t be providing detailed instructions here. Just download them. Now. Then come back and read the rest of this list. We’ll wait. Download and install NoScript for Firefox. This is a free plugin for Firefox that blocks anything from running in your browser that you don’t allow (like Javascript, Flash, and so on). You won’t need it if you just stick with Amazon, but if you use Google to help you find that can’t-miss Drink-With-Me Elmo, you shouldn’t be trolling the Internet without it. If you don’t want it bothering you all the time, at least use it during your holiday shopping and turn it off later.

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PayPal Mobile

PayPal announced their Mobile PayPal offering this week. Really nothing new here from a technology standpoint as it leverages existing services and the Verisign/PayPal security key. Why I was interested in the release was the signal that they are putting more resources behind this market. I am still shocked that payment via cell phone did not catch on like wildfire in US. Look at adoption rates of cell phones, SMS, twitter and the like, and I would have bet that payment would have been right there with them. Small dollar, in context, person to person, embedded payments could be easily provided. I saw my first payment via cell phone method in 1996 through one of the major European cell phone providers. Built a system capable of providing ‘micro-payment’ over the phone in 1997. Nada. No interest from the public. Still, it would be far safer for me to pay for that thing I bought on eBay over the cell phone than using the Internet access for whatever hotel I am usually staying in. Need remains, so I am very interested in seeing how customers react to this recent announcement. There are plenty of other companies who offer quality service but struggle with adoption. Startups like Obopay have done a good job in building awareness and vendor relationships (with banks & telecommunications carriers) needed to succeed in this market. But while they may be winning the war with the tiny providers like CellPay, Paymate, TextPayMe and countless others, they are at a disadvantage in a couple of ways. First, these vendors typically build a new payment mechanism, unlike PayPal, who is simply a wrapper on existing infrastructure. Second, even if they do come up with a novel approach, most likely what they have done is build a blueprint for the larger providers as they are not large enough to make a market. After 10 years I think we have proven there is not going to be viral adoption, so the smaller players are going to have a very tough time if PayPal’s offering is adopted by their customers, something neither the banks nor the cell providers have been able to leverage. Now I am off for a long weekend. Have a great Thanksgiving Holiday! Share:

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The Network Security Podcast, Episode 129

Martin and I are preparing for Thanksgiving, just like everyone else in America right now. I don’t know about you, but that primarily means I have five days of work to accomplish in three days of the week. So we didn’t organize a guest this week- instead we sat down together (1000 miles apart) and talked about some of the stories that caught our attention over the last couple of weeks. It’s a good show, and we’re out of here until after Turkey Day. Have a great Thanksgiving! Network Security Podcast, Episode 129, November 25 2008 Show notes: Security FAIL – But I changed my Twitter password… Gmail Security Flaw PoC Kernel Vulnerability found in Vista Final judgment: SCO owes Novell millions (plus interest) Decreasing security for perceived security – all in the name of compliance Managing Security in Economic Downturns The Julie Amero forensic analysis Share:

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