This is a big topic, so I'll have a few posts on the subject. I'm not talking about Phishing on the web, but that is part of the problem. This is about phishing in businesses, at home, on the street, just about anywhere, through networks and the use of social engineering, profiling and personal information.

If one looks at the history of Stalin and Hitler, they'll notice that both of these people used a lot of informants and gathered a lot of information about people. Their strategies included using this information for oppression and to suppress dissent. In the USSR, a prominent military figure, for example, would disappear. They would alter (touch up) old photos which included the person so that the person was no longer in the picture. This was a way of effectively taking someone "out of the picture."

There is a spectrum of social systems ranging from left to right. Many considered Stalin to be on the left because it was called communism. Hitler was considered to be on the far right because he was a dictator. Others claim that Stalin was a dictator. With phishing, this isn't a left or right thing. It is a strategy. A system which involves phishing isn't what people should want. We shouldn't have people going around provoking and gathering information about people.

If you take the average Joe walking down the street, anyone could provoke this person into a verbal or physical response if they push the right buttons. Someone can use just about anything someone has against that person: their house, their dog, their job, their spouse, their privacy. The list is long.