Find and blog about an illustrative case of hacktivism
I remembered some cases of hacktivism in Estonia in April 2007. It was a critical time in Estonia, because of the cultural clash between estonian and russian speaking people. In May 2007 Estonian Prime Minister had ordered a statue called Bronze Soldier to be removed from its original location. The statue played an important role in the culture of russian-speaking people in Estonia and therefore they were not satisfied with the Prime Minister's actions. The situation concluded with a public rage in the streets of Tallinn, during which many buildings were damaged, shops were robbed and people were arrested.
Soon after these events in April 2007 someone hacked in the Web site of the political party Reformierakond, which was the party the Prime Minister belonged to. The main page of the site consisted of an apology in russian by the Prime Minister. The government press department disproved the content and announced that the site had been hacked.
During the same time period several attacks were also made to other governmental Web sites, which made the IT-specialists and the public understand the vulnerability of government Web sites. The attacks continued for a few months and brought people's attention to the fact that Internet is not private and the security issues should be considered more important.
Blog about a case of social engineering
One of the most vicious cases of social engineering involve the "request for help" e-mails, which use the human factor and rely on human empathy. The scammers send e-mails or write to forums about some sad situation they or their loved ones are in and request financial help.
There are several cases about deceitful people taking advantage of others by relying on their empathy. One case I found about this kind of fraud was about a woman called Dina Leone who lied about having cancer for 3,5 years and it is believed that she got thousands of dollars from donations through Facebook. Firstly she looked up her old classmates and aquaintances from Facebook and soon told them that she was dying from stomach cancer. She posted pictures of herself with bald head, wrote emails about her treatments and suffering after surgeries and asked for financial help from her friends.
People started to question, how come she doesnt know much about her treatments and how did she go all bald overnight, rahter than loosing hair gradually, etc. Police investigation showed that she had not received any treatment.
These kind of people make the public suspicious of every person asking for help and make them seem as scammers and liers. But it is one of the most effective ways of manipulating, becaus most people emphatize for others.
Formulate some measures which can reduce the effectiveness of social engineering attempts
1. Background research - Use Google, Facebook or any other search engine and find out about the person sending the message. Especially in Estonia, as the country is so small everyone knows someone who knows that person, etc.
2. Inform the public - Each time you receive a suspicious email, let your friends and family know that they should be careful. It doesn't hurt to repeat the same message again over a period of time as people tend to forget.
3. Use junk mail filters and do not open suspicious email attatchments.
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