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This is not new. Government officials and corporate executives have always been targets of espionage. That spies would disguise their attempts as common spam/ph
by fnordfnordfnord 14y ago
This is not new. Government officials and corporate executives have always been targets of espionage. That spies would disguise their attempts as common spam/phishing is unremarkable; as is the notion that some ordinary hackers might also preferentially target this class of people.
- yalue 14y agoExactly. The term the article should be using for it is "social engineering." It would only take a minimal amount of research to create a legitimate-looking email to a Coca-Cola executive or whoever. Emails claiming to contain coupons for free sexual performance enhancers won't exactly work for most people, so a little research isn't a stretch at all.
- tripzilch 14y agoSpear phishing and social engineering are pretty close. Maybe even the same thing, but arrived from a different angle.
- Jabbles 14y agoA well-worded email claiming to contain a PDF CV of an ambitious graduate could easily be opened by a CTO. Or "Check out my blog... (I specialise in Javascript so please turn NoScript off.)" The possibilities of social engineering are scary.
- runejuhl 14y agoYou might want to put a link to your blog somewhere.. :)
- corresation 14y agoThat's all very world weary, but this most certainly is new, and attack vectors have changed.
- baudehlo 14y agoIt most certainly is NOT new. We were writing about it at MessageLabs (now part of Symantec) years ago (in 2007 or earlier IIRC). What's surprising is that I gave a talk twice for Schneier's company Counterpane on tour with him in Texas, to a small room of people, including Bruce, covering exactly this topic, around that time. Disclaimer: I no longer work there but I created their anti-spam software.