Steve Black sent me a link to Brian Livingston’s column on new and clever phishing techniques,
“phishing” being the slang for tricking people into revealing
information, like credit card numbers and SSNs. The article shows how
Internet Explorer’s address bar and the SSL lock icon can be faked. A
few guidelines might make your online experience safer:
1. Don’t accept HTML emails that can hide the real links you’re being sent.
2. Don’t ever enter personal information unless you’re really, really
sure. Banks aren’t going to ask for your CC number and expiration. If
someone wants your SSN, they better be with the Social Security
Administration.
3. Consider a safer browser. These tricks were all done with IE.
I wonder if they can be reproduced using XUL on Mozilla or in Safari or
Opera or Netscape or…