Early Phishing
Koceilah Rekouche krekouche@pushstart.info
The history of phishing traces back in important ways to the mid-1990s when hacking
software facilitated the mass targeting of people in password stealing scams on America
Online (AOL). The first of these software programs was mine, called AOHell, and it was
where the word phishing was coined. The software provided an automated password
and credit card-stealing mechanism starting in January 1995. Though the practice of
tricking users in order to steal passwords or information possibly goes back to the
earliest days of computer networking, AOHell’s phishing system was the first automated
tool made publicly available for this purpose. 1 The program influenced the creation of
many other automated phishing systems that were made over a number of years. These
tools were available to amateurs who used them to engage in a countless number of
phishing attacks. By the later part of the decade, the activity moved from AOL to other
networks and eventually grew to involve professional criminals on the internet. What
began as a scheme by rebellious teenagers to steal passwords evolved into one of the
top computer security threats affecting people, corporations, and governments.
You Might Be from AOL if…
Encyclopediadramatica.es/AOL
AOL
Stands for “American Offline,” and is sometimes referred to as “AOHell“, “gAyOL”,”LOL”, or “my shitty internets.” It’s one of the last surviving online services from the pre-home internet days, and originally offered an entire online system with limited internet accessa virus that was invented at least 100 years ago, and was wide-spread, being a serious rival for MSN. Today it offers banal, mainstream content for an exorbitant fee and few useful features. It creates a warm, fuzzy, safe-feeling environment for those who fear being on the Internets alone.
An irony about AOL is its creation and ownership of the AOL Instant Messenger system which is heavily used by many people who have a vehement hatred for AOL the ISP, but don’t hesitate to use the AOL IM feature as it is so ubiquitous amongst internet users that there is almost no escaping it. In other words, you hate AIM but have to use it because all of your friends are too stupid to use anything better. Also, AIM is guaranteed to make your computer 100% slower.
When AOL is referred to as an ISP, this is somewhat incorrect, AOL is actually considered a “content provider” as opposed to an Internet access provider. This is due to the fact that you must read at least a nominal part of AOL content before being given access to the raw Internet. But no one gives a shit.
AOL will never stop billing your credit card. Never.
AOL was once the world’s only source of 3.5″ floppy disks. When they went to CD for distribution, they went out of business.