First, phishing attacks alarmed Internet consumers with e-mails from legitimate-looking but phony financial institutions soliciting personal account information. Now, “pharming” is quickly becoming phishing’s scary younger brother.
A next-generation method of identity theft, pharming exploits vulnerabilities in domain name system (DNS) servers, redirecting your Web request to fake Web sites that appear legitimate, even when the correct domain name is input into the Internet browser. These dummy Web sites can fool people into handing over personal information, such as passwords or credit-card numbers, to identity thieves.
Because the dummy sites appear almost identical to the legitimate sites, pharming can be especially tricky to spot. If something seems suspicious to you, end the session immediately or don’t log on.
Many major financial institutions and retailers utilize security protocol to prevent other sites from impersonating them. Some pharming-conscious sites offer a dialog box that you can use to verify the site’s authenticity. Clicking this padlock security icon will allow you to view the site’s certificate; if it doesn’t match the site you thought you were logging on to, close the page. Pharming is still so new that many institutions have yet to add protective measures.
“Phishing is to pharming what a guy with a rod and a reel is to a Russian trawler. Phishers have to approach their targets one by one. Pharmers can scoop up many victims in a single pass,” said Chris Risley, president and chief executive officer of Nominum, a provider of IP address infrastructure technology for businesses.
E-mailed viruses that rewrite local host files on individual PCs, like the Banker Trojan, have been used to conduct smaller-scale pharming attacks. Host files convert standard URLs into the numeric strings a computer understands. A computer with a compromised host file will go to the wrong website even if a user types in the correct URL.
The most alarming pharming threat is DNS poisoning, which can cause a large group of users to be herded to bogus sites. DNS — the domain name system — translates web and e-mail addresses into numerical strings, acting as a sort of telephone directory for the internet. If a DNS directory is “poisoned” — altered to contain false information regarding which web address is associated with what numeric string — users can be silently shuttled to a bogus website even if they type in the correct URL.
Although phishing and pharming present a danger, they are no reason to avoid the Web. Meanwhile, you should remain vigilant and exercise caution while surfing the net.