In the TV show Lost in Space the space family Robinson travel through the galaxy with their faithful robot “Robbie”. I believe the TV series had a big screen movie version made several years ago.
I remember the notable phrase from the movie was when the robot (Robbie) was warning the intrepid juvenile, “Will Robinson” that he was about to experience something harmful.
The refrain “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger” has stuck with me through the ages as a great warning line. Although I am not sure it has the same resonance to the younger generation.
Information Thieves
The historic line “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger” rang through my head the other day as I was the victim of a really great site impersonation.
Given I have an expert level of internet security expertise (gained through years of professional training and experience) it is surprising I was vulnerable to the attempt – and also an indication of the attackers sophistication.
The Story
Several weeks ago my Apple TV streaming slowed down. Last week I reporting the issue on the Apple web site logging in with my ID and password to use their secure messaging services.
The automated reply to my issue report stated I could expect a response in two to three days later.
Two days later I received an email from apple support stating there was an internal message awaiting me and providing a linking. Normally I would have immediately recognized this as phishing and deleted.
However, in this case I was expecting an email from apple so clicked the link (great timing on the attackers part, not sure if it was luck or planned).
Anyway the link presented the apple ID login page (exactly as it looks on the apple site) and I was not paying attention to the URL, so I logged in. The response was that my account was locked and to activate it I needed to fill in my personal information.
Although extremely annoying I must admit this was all very clever. I might be dense but when you hit me over the head twice I do get it.
I immediately closed my browser and went to the real apple site and logged in (surprise, not locked) and changed my password (I do this relatively regularly anyway).
Kudos to the Miscreant Hacker though
Much as the attempt angers me, unlike so many phishing attempts I see this one was pretty well thought out. All I can say it there is some value to the mantra “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!”