Phishing

Last week in class we were discussing different Internet threats that can be found. One of the topics discussed was Phishing. I found this topic to be rather interesting because I've received many different legitimate looking e-mails from different banks asking for my information. I knew it wasn't real though since I never had an account with the banks that I got the fraudulent e-mails from. I decided to look up phishing on wikipedia and learn alittle more about the topic. Wikipedia describes phishing as "a criminal activity using social engineering techniques." The first recorded mention of phishing was on January 2, 1996. The name phishing was created as a play on words using the word fishing. It is described as a people using "sophisticated lures" to fish for an individuals personal information. After looking some of this up on wikipedia I decided to check my bloglines and I found an article talking about phishing so I thought I would read it. The article talks about Microsoft and how they are allowing an Australian University to purchase their software for 95% off. The only problem is when a student goes to the website a message pops-up telling the person that the website might be a phishing website and not to give out their information. The Australian PC World website give a more in depth discussion about the problems Microsoft is encountering. They have issued a statement telling everyone to ignore the pop-up warning.
I think this is a very funny predicament that Microsoft is in. They are trying to allow an amazing deal to the students of an Australian University and their own anti-phishing software is turning against them, warning people not to trust the website or the offer. This also will make me look at e-mails that I receive alittle differently, and while I still will not give any information out I'll probably wonder for a few seconds as to whether or not this could be a legitimate offer.