Phishing Dark Waters: The Offensive and Defensive Sides of Malicious Emails

Chapter 1An Introduction to the Wild World of Phishing

Lana: Do you think this is some kind of a trap?

Archer: What? No, I don't think it's a trap! Although I never do …and it very often is.

—Archer, Season 4 Episode 13

Because we're going to be spending some time together, I feel I should start our relationship with an honest self-disclosure. Although I consider myself to be a reasonably smart person, I have made an inestimable number of stupid mistakes. Many of these started with me yelling, “Hey, watch this!” or thinking to myself, “I wonder what would happen if <insert dangerous/stupid situation here>.” But most often, my mistakes have come not from yelling challenges or thinking about possibilities but from not thinking at all. This absence of thinking typically has led to only one conclusion—taking an impulsive action. Scammers, criminals, and con men have clearly met me in a past life, because this is one of the key aspects that make them successful. Phishing in its various forms has become a high-profile attack vector used by these folks because it's a relatively easy way to reach others and get them to act without thinking.

NOTE

One more thing before this train really gets rolling. You may notice that when I refer to the bad guy, I use the pronoun “he.” (See? I even said bad “guy.”) I'm not sexist, nor am I saying all scammers are male. It's just simpler than improperly using “they” or saying “he or she” just to be inoffensive to someone, and it avoids adding a layer ...