Operation Phish Phry

How full is the "junk" folder in your email account? If you are like me, it gets filled faster each day with junk email. Most of these emails are simply, well, junk. But some are phishing emails sent by genuine bad guys trying to get me to divulge a password, Social Security Number, account number or other personally identifiable information (PII). We all get these phishing emails, and they are clever.Yesterday, the FBI announced its Operation Phish Phry. According to the FBI:The defendants in Operation Phish Phry targeted U.S. banks and victimized hundreds and possibly thousands of account holders by stealing their financial information and using it to transfer about $1.5 million to bogus accounts they controlled. More than 50 individuals in California, Nevada, and North Carolina, and nearly 50 Egyptian citizens have been charged with crimes including computer fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identify theft.In conjunction with this, FBI Director Robert Muller was in San Francisco addressing the Commonwealth Club. His remarks included the following:Most of us assume we will not be targets of cyber crime. We are not as careful as we know we should be. Let me give you an example.Not long ago, the head one of our nation’s domestic agencies received an e-mail purporting to be from his bank. It looked perfectly (continue reading...)