DICT: Possible ‘new Friendster’ being used for phishing

There is a possibility that the "new Friendster" is being used for phishing, the Department of Information and Communication Technology said on Tuesday. 

In an advisory, the DICT’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (DICT-NCERT) said an initial investigation showed that the IP address hosting the new Friendster was found to have “had previous reports about phishing, brute force and DDoS attacks, hacking, and host exploitations.”

“Having said that, there is a possibility that the said website is being used for phishing,” the DICT-NCERT said.

Stunner, a Facebook page, has posted that Friendster is back and that thousands have already signed up for the revived social network.

It has since updated the post and included the warning from DICT-NCERT regarding the “new” Friendster site.

GMA News Online is still trying to get comment from any one behind the new Friendster website and will publish his or her side as soon as it is available.

The DICT-NCERT said that “the website uses WordPress for its main service, which is not used for social networking platforms since it is a content management system.”

Further, the agency said the link provided in the post uses a “non-popular top-level domain (.click).”

The supposed new Friendster website also does not include an “About Us” page, which the DICT-NCERT said could provide information on who developed the website.

The agency advised the public to take the following actions upon seeing the post:

• Do not click suspicious links to avoid future potential threats.
• Do not register on this website because your data may be compromised.
• In addition, providing and capacitating employees with cybersecurity knowledge and information to minimize threats.

Phishing is a form of cyber attack that is used to steal users’ data such as their passwords, and bank, or credit card information by duping them into opening a link to a page that is masquerading as a legitimate website. —NB, GMA Integrated News