You Are Being Targeted: Common Ground of Phishers and Polticial Strategists
It was a bit strange reading F-Secure's latest IT Threat Summary and having a feeling that I've heard part of this story before. I had, sort of.
Part of the threat summary deals with targeted attacks and spear phishing, like a series of attacks on executives with bogus claims of Better Business Bureau complaints. To make the scam as realistic as possible the attackers researched the company and found the names of real employees. In the case of spear phishing, the attackers send specific messages to people that match a particular profile. Scammers are turning to demographics, a lot like political strategists.
A recent article in Campaigns and Elections entitled "Microwizards: These innovators are taking microtargeting in startling new directions" says it all. Rather than send generic messages, start with some survey data, add commercially available demographics and mix in a bit of data from political organizations and you have enough information to get someone to pay attention to your pitch. See the latest issue of Wired for more on the art of political data analysis.
While there are similarities between how political strategists and phishers are targeting you there is one big difference. Phishers will still be targeting you on Wednesday, November 5, 2008.
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