Online Campaign 2008: A Phishing Bonanza? on Threat Level

By Sarah Lai Stirland

The 2008 presidential contenders’ online fund-raising tactics could encourage one gigantic phishing attack — or at least a series of little debilitating nibbles that will destroy the campaigns’ momentum online, says a noted online security researcher.

The growing volumes of money that the presidential campaigns are soliciting — and receiving — online are likely to prick up the ears of fraudsters sensing a great opportunity to cut in and divert passionate online politicos’ financial support to their own pockets, says Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student in the school of Informatics at Indiana University in a new paper to be presented today in Washington, DC.
The public last heard from Soghoian when he created a web site to generate fake Northwest Airline boarding passes to illustrate how insecure the nation’s aviation policies are. (He was rewarded for his work with a visit from the FBI and a call for his arrest from a Democratic Congressman. This time, he’s consulted his university’s lawyers before making his presentation this afternoon at the eCrimes Researchers Summit.)