Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Out-Law News 1 min. read

Phishing by fax evades Oxford English Dictionary


Fraudsters sending emails that ask recipients to confirm their bank account details by fax are using a new form of phishing, says security firm Sophos. But not according to the Oxford English Dictionary – which this week defined 'phishing' for the first time.

According to the revised second edition of the OED, published on Wednesday:

phishingnoun the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.

The first recorded use of the word was in 1996, when hackers referred in a newsgroup to the hijacking of AOL accounts. Their motivation was free internet access; today, the motivation for phishing is financial gain.

But while phishing's meaning has evolved slowly, the methods of attack have been quicker to grow. Just as the word is endorsed by the OED, the latest technique transcends the online environment.

According to Sophos, the new email attack links to a Word document on a Polish website, which recipients are urged to download and print.

The emails identified by Sophos purported to come from PayPal and follow the traditional phishing template: a "dear customer" warning about a security breach. The faxback requests names, addresses and phone numbers, passwords and credit card details.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, acknowledged that "some people who know that they need to be careful about entering their confidential information on a bogus website may think that completing and faxing back such a form is somehow safer."

Other new words

With 355,000 words, phrases and definitions, the Oxford Dictionary of English is widely regarded as the foremost authority on the English language.

Other new words joining the latest edition include:

chip and PIN •nouna way of paying for goods by debit or credit card whereby one enters one's personal identification number in an electronic device rather than signing a slip.

gamepad •noun a hand-held controller for video games.

geocaching noun a form of treasure hunt using GPS, in which an item is hidden somewhere in the world and its coordinates posted on the Internet, so that GPS users can locate it.

nanoscale •adjective on a scale of 10–9 metre; having or involving dimensions of less than 100 nanometres.

offshoring •noun the practice of basing some of a company's processes or services overseas, so as to take advantage of lower costs.

podcast •noun a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.

wiki noun a website or database developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.