IBM Reports On Spear Phishers

FrenchyinOntario writes "IBM reports that while "regular" phishing is declining the black hats are now engaging in targeted spear phishing to glean as much information about a specific identity as they can for all the usual cybercrime reasons. It concerns authorities because the usual suspects - criminal and terrorist organizations - will want to take advantage of this, but the chilling part is how your identity will now be dependent on multiple institutions protecting your personal information, as opposed to eBay, PayPal, your bank, etc."

So the phishers have refined their tactics

[Trigun]

Didn't see that coming. Maybe their old tactics weren't working so well, so they had to adapt?
Naw, it's an intelligent design!

Another stupid cutesy technical term?

[Heffenfeffer]

'Spear phishing'? Oh great, what's next? Bass phishing - searching for orders made at koss.com Phly phishing - searching for info in TRL posts Net phishing - Oh, wait...

Why phishing?

[spun]

Why not phunting or gaphering, hmmm? Isn't this whole thing rather fish-centric? I prefer to think of the rubes taken in by these cons as vegetables, thus I think we should use the term gaphering.

Re:black hats

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why I call them asexual, butt-ugly wankers.

The real question is...

[swelke]

The real question is: Would this still be news if they hadn't come up with such a catchy name (spear phishing)?

Re:So the phishers have refined their tactics

[ShaniaTwain]

See this is why evolution should be banned!

not the teaching of evolution, evolution itself.
Then MEGACORP won't have to waste profits on securing their massive database of customer eyecolor and bloodtype.

Re:Slashdotted, mirror here

[winkydink]

Karma has nothing to do with it. I do it for the sheer pleasure of annoying the heck out of people like you.

Fishing

[zimus]

Spear fishing is kinda hard, I prefer using a shotgun or dynamite.

PLEASE TO BE NOT REPORTING US TO FBI!!!1

[Anonymous Coward]

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Fun with adverbs

[Jeremi]

"Its concerns are linked to cyberterrorism as well as obviously organized crime."

Surreptitiously organized crime may be involved also, but they keep such a low profile that it's hard to tell.

Wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that the French ID cards can'tbe forged, it's that NOBODY wants to pretend to be French!

Re:A way around this...

[TripMaster Monkey]

french ID cards are a thousand times more secure than your dollar bills

What an idiotic statement...for three reasons:

1. Just how did you arrive at that figure 'a thousand times'? Show your math, please.
   
2. The U.S. one-dollar bill is perhaps the most insecure piece of currency on the planet. Eight-year-old children can create counterfeit dollar bills with a decent color inkjet printer. Sorry, but something a 'thousand times' more secure than a joke does not exactly inspire feelings of security and trust.
   
3. You referenced the French.

Please log off before you hurt yourself.