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Can we stop making new -ishing words for scams? This weird lingo is part of what turns the less savvy users off from paying much attention to their personal sec
by 0xEF 2y ago
Can we stop making new -ishing words for scams? This weird lingo is part of what turns the less savvy users off from paying much attention to their personal security. Just say a [type of] scam such as "a QR code scam" or "text message scams," etc.
We do not need to coin a new term for each one of these things and nobody is winning any prizes for adding more layers of abstraction to fight through when trying to communicate security concepts to the people who really need to listen to it.
- hackable_sand 2y agoThe delineation is useful for broad audiences.
- 0xEF 2y agoAs someone who regularly has to digest relevant security information and deliver it to teams that generally do not know a lot about or do not enjoy using computers, I can tell you that no, it is not useful.
- SapporoChris 2y agoI am in full agreement. However, it seems to be human nature to make portmanteau words, acronyms, abbreviations and slang. All of my attempts to outlaw these things and impose fines have fallen on deaf ears. I must also confess that I have used these terrible words...
- RossM 2y agoIt's got to be pure marketing - the British media certainly loves a buzzword, but I suspect that's more to do with their clickbait strategy. ("What is blishing? Have I fallen for it?"). Perhaps it helps some people compartmentalise, but I couldn't find any research that looks into any increased cognitive load. Our workplace cybersecurity training introduces at least 1 new word each year. This year's was "vishing" which apparently is just social engineering/credential extraction that takes place over the phone. Of course, it's presented to non-technical users as a well-adopted term that is very important to know (for the checkbox quiz in 3 slides time).