TrendMicro Inc (趨勢科技), the nation’s top software company, yesterday published a list of the top 10 ways hackers commit identity theft involving unsuspecting online shoppers during the holiday season.
As the public goes online to purchase Christmas or New Year’s presents, hackers find ways to infect both business and personal computers, as well as steal personal information from Internet shoppers, the computer security company said in a release.
Internet criminals often create false online stores to lure shoppers with incredible discounts or promotions. An example is a false advertisement for Apple Inc’s popular iPhone that attracted shoppers to make a purchase on a fake site and infected their computers with the malicious TROJ_AYFONE.A virus to steal credit card and personal information, TrendMicro said.
The second tactic hackers use is to spam charity contribution e-mail lists and lure donors to a fake site, taking advantage of people’s generosity during the holidays.
The third method is sending out online holiday cards and prompting recipients to open links to another site or browser, thus infecting them with viruses.
Other methods hackers use, TrendMicro said, include posting false savings ads and online surveys on high-traffic sites, using false keywords such as “Christmas gift shopping” or “Halloween costumes,” as well as linking shoppers to online sellers with false feedback, the report said.
Malicious software embedded in delivery company emails and online receipts are also creative means by which these criminals carry out their attacks.
MicroTrend recommends using a reputable anti-virus software as well as Internet safety software to prevent digital data theft on both personal and business computers.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by