SonicWALL Test Exposes Phishing Techniques That Hook the Unwary
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ:SNWL), a leading provider of continuous data protection and network, Web and email security solutions, has created a new Phishing IQ Test to help users improve their ability to resist email scams. The SonicWALL Phishing IQ Test, available at www.sonicwall.com/phishing/, invites users to try their hand at distinguishing fraudulent emails from the real thing, and provides an up-to-date set of forensics detailing the latest techniques used to glean sensitive data from the unwary.
To highlight some of the psychological, visual and technical tricks that phishers use to bait their hooks, SonicWALL has also created a podcast series, Phishing Patrol, which is now available at www.sonicwall.com/alert/ . The six short audio segments focus on practical steps that users can take to help protect themselves from Internet scams and fraud.
"Some phish are particularly ingenious, like the one that invited users to pay a dollar to enter a $100,000 lottery," commented Gleb Budman, senior director of product management at SonicWALL. "They wanted you to use your credit card to play, and had created a false web site that could have fooled anyone -- it was very well constructed."
A substantial proportion of the estimated 6.1 billion phishing emails issued each month achieve their goal of delivering credit card, banking and financial information into the hands of criminals. Phishing -- the practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information -- is growing in sophistication and frequency. In August 2005, the word was acknowledged as an official term when it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Steps that users can take to protect themselves include: checking for misspellings or extra characters before clicking on a familiar-seeming URL; calling the company or re-typing a URL into a browser rather than clicking the links in a suspicious-looking email; and not filling in forms embedded in email messages. "Also, it's important to take action if you see small sums that are inexplicably charged to your bank or credit card account," said Budman. "Often phishers will test the likelihood of success by siphoning off an insignificant amount first. It pays to be wary."
"Cybercriminals rely on the fact that most individuals are trusting and don't think much about computer security," Budman said. "It's this natural human failing that most hackers are exploiting. People often mistakenly unjunk phishing emails that have been classified as spam, believing them to be real emails that have been over-zealously filtered. As an extra precaution, SonicWALL's Email Security Solution clearly calls out which emails are phishing attempts as opposed to spam. This is one of the many ways in which technology can help combat fraud."
In May, following the acquisition of MailFrontier, SonicWALL launched its Email Security suite, which incorporates a full range of powerful, easily managed inbound and outbound email protection including features such as anti-
spam, anti-virus, anti-phishing, auditing, policy management and email compliance capabilities.
About SonicWALL, Inc.
Founded in 1991, SonicWALL, Inc. designs, develops and manufactures comprehensive network security, email security, secure remote access and continuous data protection solutions. For more information, contact SonicWALL at +1 (408) 745-9600 or visit the company Web site at www.sonicwall.com/ .
Source: SonicWALL, Inc.
CONTACT: Mary McEvoy of SonicWALL, Inc., +1-408-962-7110, or mmcevoy@sonicwall.com; or Kristin Uchiyama of The Hoffman Agency,
+1-408-975-3075, or kuchiyama@hoffman.com, for SonicWALL, Inc.
Web site: www.sonicwall.com/
