Spoofing a Government Website is Easier Than You Think

Nicescene/Shutterstock.com

A new breed of attacker is impersonating government websites and official apps in order to steal credentials from real feds.

John Breeden II is an award-winning journalist and reviewer with over 20 years of experience covering technology and government. He is currently the CEO of the Tech Writers Bureau, a group that creates technological thought leadership content for organizations of all sizes. Twitter: @LabGuys

The federal government is a big target, the fourth most popular overall according to most studies, for attackers trying to target core assets. But a new breed of attacker may be even more insidious, impersonating government websites and official apps in order to steal credentials from real federal workers, or simply to exploit normal people who think they are interacting with real agencies.

This past week, I was invited to examine a product in the emerging field of external asset protection. While most cybersecurity focuses on core assets, the RiskIQ Digital Threat Management Platform instead looks at areas outside of an agency’s direct control to find threats or vulnerabilities. This can be suppliers working with unpatched or vulnerable equipment, or outright criminals trying to impersonate government agencies. The RiskIQ platform is designed to find all of them, wherever they may be hiding on the internet.

» Get the best federal technology news and ideas delivered right to your inbox. Sign up here.

For my demo, we used the Community Edition of RiskIQ, which is free to anyone. It contains most of the general information about spoofed or vulnerable linked sites, just not the detailed threat intelligence of the premium version that must be paid for as a service. For the demo, we looked at the actual vulnerabilities and spoofed sites for a federal agency, and I insisted I got to pick the specific agency at the last second, so RiskIQ didn’t know where we would be looking.

The Postal Service was my choice. I figured there would be lots of scams involving the Internal Revenue Service. I even get those calling my phone. But I didn’t think there would be too much Postal Service imitation. Boy, was I wrong on that.

But more about the tool we were using first. The RiskIQ Digital Threat Management Platform is an internet intelligence data warehouse at its core, coupled with three primary applications: RiskIQ Digital Footprint, RiskIQ PassiveTotal and RiskIQ External Threats.

RiskIQ Digital Footprint is used to discover an organization’s web and associated online assets, while RiskIQ PassiveTotal accelerates threat, adversary and incident investigations. RiskIQ External Threats provides the ability to deal with advanced threats, active exploits and sophisticated attackers. As we weren’t actually fixing problems, most of our time was spent with the first two components.

Right from the start, the problems facing USPS.com and the Postal Service looked kind of grim. In fact, there were 1,243 active systems flagged by RiskIQ. Of those, seven were actively serving malware, one was phishing, nine were infringing on the Postal Service domain—acting like USPS with a similar URL, and 468 had stolen content.

Not everything tagged was necessarily bad. For example, anyone can put a link to the Postal Service on their website to help people look up ZIP code information or schedule passport photos, or because they are big fan of the mail. There is nothing wrong with that, though the sites actively serving up malware or pretending to be the government were certainly were up to no good.

RiskIQ’s ability to search for content was impressive. It located a lengthy subdomain housed at a business school in India where someone was actively building out a fake USPS.com site, complete with logos, links and the ability for users to create an account which they might think is being done at the real Postal Service site. It’s also possible the site is simply a student project, but it’s certainly something that should probably be watched.

Moving to apps, the storm of fake Postal Service programs got even worse. There were hundreds of fake apps that had already been blacklisted for multiple platforms including Android, iOS, Windows and BlackBerry, and even some for older operating systems still being used in some parts of the world like Symbian. RiskIQ could monitor all the new apps being created, and flag the ones that seem to take liberties with the Postal Service's intellectual property.

Once discovered, valid owners of domains and IP can file a complaint with the major browser manufacturers or the appropriate app store as a fairly quick fix to the problem. All of the major browsers are able to blacklist sites proven to be spoofed or deceptive, so if Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome users can’t get to them, it removes a big part of the potential pool of scam victims.

While a private citizen might have a few hoops to jump through to get action taken, I’m confident the government can get those things done without much pushback. The RiskIQ officials I interviewed told me complaints filed through their software often get fast tracked, as most of the research, proof gathering and due diligence is already completed.

The company says it's working with federal agencies now, but are not allowed to say which ones. Regardless, hunting down and squashing spoofed and phishing sites, plus illegal and dangerous apps, should be something that concerns federal agencies.

Putting aside the fact that some of these spoofed sites could be designed to capture actual federal credentials, even if they are just ripping normal people off—they are using the good name of a federal agency to do it. Not to sound too John Wayne about it, but those are fighting words in my book.

Anyone can use the free community version of the RiskIQ platform, so if any agency or organization is worried about people using their names and reputations for nefarious purposes, give it a look and find out. I was certainly shocked at the potential number of threats levied against a nonpolitical, nonsecret, service-oriented agency like the Postal Service. The problems there might be the tip of the threat iceberg across government.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.