By Mary Pat Gallagher
Thousands of executives received e-mails last week purporting to be federal court subpoenas but that appear to be part of a "phishing" scam to capture sensitive data.
The pseudo-subpoenas bear the seal of the U.S. District Court and docket numbers from real cases, though apparently closed ones, without party names. They command an appearance on May 7 before a grand jury in a particular room at the U.S. courthouse in San Diego.
They identify the originating e-mail address as "subpoena@uscourts.com" and contain a link with an instruction to "download the entire document on this matter ... and print it for you record."
They identify the originating e-mail address as "subpoena@uscourts.com" and contain a link with an instruction to "download the entire document on this matter ... and print it for you record."
Those who click on the link infect their own computers, and those networked to them, with a virus aimed at gathering passwords, account numbers, credit card numbers and similar information. Matt Richard, of VeriSign's iDefense Labs, a cybersecurity group, estimates that 1,800 recipients have clicked on the link. >more
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