Stop phishing around
Posted on March 26th, 2007 by sherrilynne
Each morning I boot up my computer, open up Outlook and receive at least 25 offers of cheap loans, pleas to clarify my PayPal account details and notices of countless lottery wins. I’ll bet it’s the same for most people.
But it’s more than just an annoyance. It’s fraud. And, it’s very big business with some estimates putting revenues at US $105 billion a year. The continuing growth in this phishing, a criminal activity using social engineering techniques to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, demonstrates how effective the Internet is for crooks in targeting financial companies.
Click here to read the rest of this Tech Talk column, originally published 19 February in the Isle of Man Examiner.
Filed under: public relations
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Maybe we are looking at the wrong end of this problem. Let’s assume that anyone can pretend to be somebody else. The real issue is that it’s become easier for someone to perform an unauthorised transaction. The issue of identity theft will not go away while the cost of the problem is borne by the consumer. If instead the cost of unauthorised transactions fell to the financial organisations themselves, then solutions may be found.
There is also the classic trade-off between security and usability here. On the one hand we want an easy smooth transaction with little fuss, whilst at the same time we ask for the highest security possible. It’s not easy to design a system like this!
Hi Rob!
Thanks for stopping by. You sure have been keeping below the radar recently. I agree with your comments but with $105 billion to be had, it will be difficult to stem the tide on phishing, methinks…regardless of who’s footing the bill.