Friday, May 13, 2005

:Pharming the Internet

A recent article by Wired (and our local newspaper) discussed the latest Internet scam, pharming. Pharming is kind of like phishing, but the hack is actually done on ISP servers called DNS. It may be very technical to hack the DNS, but Windows PC's also use a HOSTS file. The HOSTS file can be altered on the users PC and redirect legitimate sites without their knowledge. Fortunately most Antivirus software alerts the user that this file has been changed, and may be able to block the change or restore it.