Pharming

Pharming is an advanced form of phising that redirects the connection between an IP address and its target server. This usually happens at the DNS server end -- via cache positioning or social engineering -- or on the local machine with the help of a Trojan that modifies the host file. The link is altered, so that every time users try to connect with an organization's proper site, they are secretly redirected to a mirror site, without ever having typed in the incorrect (fraudulent) address.

Social engineering is especially devious because victims are driven to harmful actions by their own greed of generosity. According to a SANS Institute report, some 1300 companies, including several big names, suffered financial losses in a single cache-poisoning attack.

Hacking, unauthorized access to systems, and database theft

Criminals frequently compromise systems, diverting information directly or with the help of listening devices, such as sniffers and scanners, on the network.

Hackers gain access to a great deal of data, decrypt it (if required), and use the data for exploits elsewhere.

Redirectors

hese are malicious programs that redirect users' network traffic to locations they did not intend to visit. The Anti-Phishing Working Group has witnessed a strong increase in traffic redirectors, as well as in phishing-based keyloggers. They report that the highest volume in traffic occurs with malicious code which simply modifies a DNS server settings or the host file to redirect either some specific DNS lookups or all DNS lookups to a fraudulent DNS server. The fraudulent server replies with 'good' answers for most domains. However, when attackers want to direct a user to a fraudulent site, they simply modify their name-server responses.

This is particularly effective because the attackers can redirect any of the users' requests at any time, and the users would have no idea that this is happening. Several international banks like HSBC Brazil, Banco Itau, Banco Banespa and Bradesco banks witnessed such attacks in December 2005.

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