Pew Survey: Online Identity Not Much Concern but What About Phishing?
The Pew Internet & American Life Project just released a survey entitled Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency (pdf) that finds not much concern about personal information available online. From a release about the report:
most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.
I suspect this stems from a feeling that most people don't feel like they have anything to hide. Phishers appreciate that.
The report notes that Web 2.0 technologies are changing how much can be known about a person. It's no longer just name, address and phone number like in the days of phone books. More personal information is volunteered to social networking sites. If you want to improve the click through rate a phishing scam, where would you start? How about by writing lures that are customized to the recipient.
The problem isn't that we make too much available to others but that our sense of caution with regard to how it can be used against isn't keeping pace, we're still too susceptible to social engineering attacks.
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