Noncryptographic Security Issues - Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times - page 379

identity. He presents himself as the person who has been entrusted to
raise money for his release and cannot reveal the prisoner's true identity.
If the mark buys this story and money is given, then as with the advance
fee scam, there will be delays, and requests for more money, all the while
keeping alive the promise of being generously rewarded at the conclusion.
However, the conclusion is that the con artist disappears with the loot.
3. Phishing : Password phishing is the extracting of a password from an
individual by pretending to be a legitimate person of authority. Often
this scam takes the form of a message from someone pretending to be
in authority and asking the victim for their password to “update your
account”, or “verify billing data”, for instance. The term “phishing” was
coined in the 1980s by crackers attempting to steal AOL accounts. If the
victim gave out the password, the perpetrator would access the account
and use it for criminal activity.
A modern version of phishing involves masquerading online as a victim's
bank. The victim might be sent a message saying, for instance, that due
to a system error, their account has been deactivated and they have to
reenter their banking data to reactivate it. The victim is provided with a
link to a Web site that appears to be their bank. Once the data is entered,
the criminal has the necessary information to drain the victim's account.
To protect yourself, simply do not use anything online when presented
with such a message. Contact the financial institution directly to confirm
that this is legitimate. The online Web site can be very sophisticated and
may be diHcult, at best, to determine if it is legitimate.
4. Pump and Dump : This is a type of financial fraud that involves the
artificial inflation of the value of some security or stock, via promotion,
for the purpose of selling it at the higher price. Countries typically prohibit
this practice under their securities laws. However, the Internet has made
it a common and profitable practice. It functions in the following fashion.
An entity will have a Web site touting their product via press releases,
bogus mineral finds, or research claims and the like. If it is a stock, say,
then investors will be urged to buy it and when this happens the price
escalates, that is, is “pumped up”. Then the originators of the scheme sell
their stack at its peak — “dump it” — and stop promoting it. Then, of
course, the stock drops like a rock and the legitimate investors lose their
money. In the 2000 movie Boiler Room the scheme is well illustrated.
5. Miscellaneous Computer Fraud : Employees may alter computer docu-
ments related to their hours of work, or sick leaves taken. This is an ex-
ample of perhaps the most common computer fraud, called data diddling ,
which is fraud by input manipulation, where an individual having access to
data processing at the input level can alter it. Although little computer
skill is required to carry this out, detection of data diddling is diHcult