Crooks ready to invade your inbox

First they stole data from your computer, then barged into your profile on social networking websites and now, they are attacking your email account.

In the beginning of the year, cyber crooks had their eyes fixed on social networking websites like Orkut, Facebook and Twitter.

They wreaked havoc on users by stealing their personal details, photographs, installing malware on their profiles and defacing them.
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But having done enough damage on that front, the phishers are now targeting email accounts managed through Outlook Express.
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The Microsoft tool is used by a majority of corporate offices to maintain emails and important data is the new target of online fraudsters.
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The damages that can be caused by phishing are tremendous.

A leading website reveals that between May 2004 and May 2005, nearly 1.2 million computer users in the United States suffered losses that added to a staggering amount of US $ 929 million.

Internet security provider, Trendmicro, has recently found a phishing email that informs users to reconfigure their Microsoft Outlook through an online procedure. Users are instructed to click on a link, however, it eventually leads them to a phishing website.
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Unlike social networking and banking accounts, a username and password are not enough to gain control of an email account. One requires the mail server information too and hence the need for a phishing site.
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This helps in getting hold of relevant information that would give the phisher total access to the user's email account.
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This enables the crooks to read emails, possibly steal critical information or even use it to spam other users.

If the phishers get hold of the necessary information, then not only the concerned user is at risk; but the main server is susceptible to a similar attack.
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Furthermore, the extensive use of an email giant like Microsoft Outlook, places the security of numerous users, corporate and otherwise, in grave danger.