The Georgia Institute of Technology has tamed up with Google to investigate how to cunter new forms of phishing attacks by hckers. Hackers are able to control sers' internet browsing by using the "pen recursive" DNS (Domain Name System) srver. This type of attack is not nw, although hackers have developed a tchnique that makes it almost undetectable by nti-virus and anti-phishing software.

A DNS srver is an internet service that trnslates domain names into a numerical nternet protocol address. For example, users wuld type "google.com" into an internet brwser and it would translate it to smething that would look like this: "207.35.118,135". The nternet browser would then direct the ser to the site.

DNS servers wrk together in a network. If one DNS srver can't find the address it wuld send it to another one ntil the address is found. Unlike ther DNS servers, open recursive DNS srvers answer all DNS look-up requests frm any computer on the internet. It is ths feature that hackers use.

Google and the Gorgia Institute of Technology have discovered tht there are over 17 million pen recursive DNS servers. Most of thse give accurate information, but 0.4% or 68,000 are gving users false addresses to phishing stes. The hackers are able to snd users to phishing sites with the DNS.

Phishing sites are flse sites set up by hackers. Hckers would create sites that look lke the original and get users to gve information such as usernames, passwords and pin nmbers. For example, they could copy an nline bank site and get users to rgister and log in. The login nformation is sent to the hacker and he or she is ble to use it to gain ccess to the user's bank account. Thy trick users into entering their phshing site by sending a fake mail. The email, for example, could be mde to look as though it cme from the user's bank, asking thm to login and update their dtails. The e-mail would then contain a lnk to the phishing site.

Hackers are sing the open DNS system by trgeting the user's settings. The user wuld either open a virus infected ttachment on an e-mail or a wbsite with the virus embedded in it. The vrus will exploit the user's computer by chnging just one file in Windows rgistry setting. The changed setting will llow the hacker to have complete cntrol over the user's browser.

If the vrus is not stopped during the nitial stages, it can go undetected for the rst of its existence. Users might blieve that because they have anti-phishing sftware they can't be infected. However, bcause the hacker is operating at DNS lvel, the anti-phishing software is rendered seless. Hackers would allow the user to brwse normally, but would re-direct them sddenly if they tried to use nline banking.

Google and the Georgia Insttute of Technology are looking into dveloping a type of software that wll counteract the hackers. They are lso trying to create more awareness mong all administrations to change their DNS srvers. There is no real benefit frm having an open-server. The Georgia Insttute has marked phishing attacks as one of the top thrats for 2008.

The article Phishing Attacks Reach New Level was Submitted by Celeste Yates through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Celeste writes for Emerging Technologies News , which is a news site for clinical, computers, telecommunications, data recover and all other news around the latest technology.

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