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| Some rogue dialers call phone numbers based on
islands in the Pacific, leading to expensive bills. |
Phone a friend? Not in the Cook Islands, Mauritania, French
Polynesia...
ComReg, Ireland's telecoms regulator, has taken the radical step
of blocking calls to 13 different countries, including the Cook
Islands and Mauritania, in a bid to combat the growing problem of
internet users being stung by extortionate phone bills.
Thousands of dial-up internet users have been affected by Trojan
horses which have silently embedded themselves in PCs and taken
over modem connections to make calls to expensive premium rate
overseas numbers, instead of the usual freephone ISP codes. Known
as "rogue dialers", the Trojans allow fraudsters to earn a small
fortune.
"These rogue dialer Trojan horses make secret phone calls to
expensive premium rate numbers without your knowledge. By the time
you receive a massive, completely unexpected telephone bill at the
end of the month it's too late," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant for Sophos. "Ireland has taken a bold step to
protect consumers by suspending calls to certain countries, it will
be interesting to see if other European operators will follow suit
to protect their users."
Irish telephone users who wish to telephone the thirteen
countries, most of which are tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean,
will be able to request that specific numbers are unblocked.
In June, the UK's telephone regulator ICSTIS reported a significant rise
in complaints about rogue dialers, forcing it to ask the National
Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) to investigate.
Sophos advises users that dialers are not likely to affect
broadband users, but only computer users who still connect to the
internet via a dial-up modem.
Anti-virus software like Sophos
Anti-Virus can detect known Trojan horses that secretly change
dial-up settings, but as there are more being written all the time
computer users are advised to be very careful about software they
allow to run on their computer. Broadband users are recommended to
check whether their computer still has a dial-up modem connected to
a telephone line, which could be exploited by this type of
attack.
"Computer users need to protect their PCs from all the nasties
spreading on the internet. Trojans are just one threat that can
prove extremely costly, but can be tackled by making sure that
anti-virus software is kept up-to-date," continued Cluley.
The countries on the Irish "banned list", which comes into force
on 4 October 2004, are those said to have been named in the
majority of complaints: Norfolk Island, Nauru, Sao Tome and
Principe, Cook Islands, Tokelau, Diego Garcia, Wallis and Fortuna,
Tuvalu, Comoros, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Mauritania and French
Polynesia.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.