1.14.2018

Insidious Hacks

Have you ever been trying to share something online and find that when you look at the final published product, you misspelled something- even though you know how to spell it and your drafts reflect a correct spelling?

You might have been hacked. There are a number of hacks that can intercept your message and, for example, just remove one letter or change one letter from your draft.
Here's a link to a blog post that addresses a spam link injection- which operates on the same theory:
https://digwp.com/2009/06/spam-link-injection-hacked/

One of the reasons this is such an insidious hack, is that it lowers other parties' perception of your credibility. People tend to do business with people they like, who they perceive to be competent in their professional area. A spelling error on a crowdfunding page lowers the chance of success of that project by 13%, according to at least one academic source.

Further, this hack is insidious in that it could cause you to question your own memory- which could potentially be interpreted as intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Since crowdfunding is a regulated activity in many jurisdictions, it goes to follow that performing a hack of this type on a webpage associated with a crowdfunding campaign could be part of a much larger fraud, aimed at reducing the economic opportunities of a party or entity.

Another reason this type of hack is insidious is because it is subtle. If fifty-thousand dollars goes missing from a checking account, most persons would likely act. However if a colleague's list serve post reflects a spelling error- her less cyber savvy colleagues may slowly begin to doubt her judgement, but it is not likely that many would be thinking about reporting anyone to the authorities.

Some additional places to watch out for this type of malfeasance would be on blogs and social media posts, so take a screenshot of your draft and preserve your sanity.

Cheers to 2018, loves.