Tab Napping – the new kind of phishing

By now most computer users are aware of phishing emails, where criminals attempt to fool the computer user into divulging their personal details, or offer a link to a malware infected website that can seize control of the computer.

There appears to be a new type of phishing attack doing the rounds and this it is a little harder to see.

It is called “Tab Napping” and it uses the tabs in the browser to fool the user into thinking that they have left a page open, so that they can login as normal.

According to Aza Raskin, a security expert at Mozilla, it is advisable that whenever a user wants to login to a secure site they should not use a tab that is already open, but if they do then they should check for https address and the padlock sign.