Warning issued on wildfire donation scam

There is a new scam on the Internet where victims are sent emails purporting to be from the IRS asking for donations for victims of California's wildfires.

A warning has been issued by the IRS that the phishing scam is attempting to make victims hand over their personal and financial details. The IRS stated that it never sends unsolicited emails asking for financial information. Those that receive the fake email should forward it on to the IRS' website immediately the agency urged.

Richard Spires, IRS deputy commissioner for operations support, said: "People should exercise caution when they receive unsolicited e-mail or email from senders they don't know." Approximately 1,800 square kilometers were laid to waste and 14 people were killed by the extensive wildfires in California during the last few weeks.

The fires, which destroyed thousands of homes, were exacerbated by California's worst drought in 130 years.

Phishers use stolen data to snare victims

Business software company Salesforce.com has had data stolen, which is being used by phishers to entrap victims, it has been reported.

A scam, directed at customers of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) used the pilfered information. The information was also used to target customers of SunTrust Banks, according to the Washington Post. DowJones reports that JMP Securities analyst Patrick Walravens wrote that 900,000 ADP customer records were compromised in the damaging phishing attack.

Vice-president of corporate strategy at Salesforce.com, Bruce Francis, wrote in an email to DowJones: "Phishing is increasingly a fact of life on the internet. "Like a number of major internet services in banking, retail, and other areas, we've seen an increase in phishing activity over the past few months." Recently the Anti-Phishing Work Group eCrime Researchers Summit concluded that more education is needed on how to identify and report phishing attacks.

Blue Coat makes phishing 'breakthrough'

Security company Blue Coat is claiming that its new anti-phishing product, dubbed Web Filter, is a first for the security software industry.

The product, which is for Blue Coat ProxySG, assesses each website visited in real-time, rather than just comparing them with a list of known phishing websites as most products do now. When a phishing site is detected, Web Filter alerts users that they will be vulnerable to cyber criminals if they open the site.

Bethany Mayer, senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Blue Coat Systems, said: "Phishing has become a lucrative vocation for criminals, and to date there has been very little standing in its way to thwart its success. "Since the web is constantly changing, it is important not to rely simply on protection from a static URL database."

Real-time "assessment and categorization" are the best protection for users of the internet, added Ms Mayer