Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Online Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier

One of the most common hybrid attacks is the “false-flag” attack,

sometimes also known as a “joe job” when performed by e-mail. In

this attack, the attacker impersonates the victim, often on a discus-

sion forum or community message board. The attacker, using the vic-

tim’s name, proceeds to make offensive, immature, unintelligent, or

outrageous comments. This form of attack is possible because many

websites fail to verify the identity of people who post comments.

Some simply allow users to post their comments under any pseudo-

nym. It is a simple matter for an attacker to use a victim’s real name

as his pseudonym so that the resulting comment appears to have

been written by the victim—many people will simply assume that a

post under the username “