LONG ISLAND, NY – Network Solutions is a popular provider of domain names and web hosting accounts in addition to other tools used for Internet services. They’re a common target due to the ability to hijack web sites and steal domain names when and if someone gains access to the account. Damages can be horrific as it is possible to permanently shut down and steal your asset or online business. Below is a weak attempt at gaining access to my Network Solutions account through email-phishing, the processing of attempting to fool a user to login to a fake website in-order to hijack the login credentials. I’m calling this attempt weak, because not only did the email show up as spam, but the users info is not spoofed to hide the true sender.
Unfortunately this is all-too-common now-a-days and is happening to millions of people every day. This is a weak attempt because there is so many tell-tale signs that this is a phishing attempt. Many of these attempts are getting much more sophisticated. For instance, some of them are including what looks to be a secure site URL. So you need to protect yourself by using Two Factor Authentication when available and as much as possible because many of these types of phishing attempts are coming from banks and other popular services we use every day. This type of phishing as been going on for years. Here is one from Verizon which I pointed out in 2013.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Searchen Networks Inc. and Internet Advertising Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, authored a ‘how to’ book called ‘‘Mastering Your Website’, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy company Searchen Networks®
There have been 4 of these type attacks in about as many weeks. The first 3 attacks were similar to what is shown in the article.
After these first 3 attacks official emails were sent to customers informing them that Network Solutions has locked their accounts for protection, provided a link where they can reset their passwords.
Yesterday’s attack mimicked Network Solutions “we’ve locked your account….” previous notifications