Fighting Phishing

Introduction

Social engineering has been around since the beginning of humanity, and phishing has been around at least since the beginning of networked computers. I can remember my first brush with social engineering via computers in 1987. This was before most people had even heard of something called the Internet and before most people had personal computers. Many of us early adopters were on a precursor of the Internet called the FIDONet. Back in those days, you would use a 300 or 1200 BAUD or BPS (Bits Per Second) dial-up analog modem to call your local BBS (Bulletin Board System). This system would use a crude “store-and-forward” technology that would transmit and receive messages and files around the world in a day or so. We thought it all was pretty cutting-edge.

On one of the BBSs, I came across a downloadable text file named “How to Get a Free HST Modem.” HST modems, made by US Robotics, were the fastest and best modems available at the time. They ran at an incredible 9600 BPS. They were expensive enough that only a few lucky, monied, people had them. They were mostly only used by Fortune 500 companies and well-funded universities. This file promised to tell anyone who read it how to obtain a free one. It was too enticing to pass up.

I opened up the file and inside it contained only text that said, “Steal One!” “Well, that was disappointing!,” I thought. Then the very next keyboard key I pressed formatted (i.e., permanently erased) my hard drive and rendered my computer ...