Listen "phishing (verb)"
Episode Synopsis
From the intrusion kill chain model, the delivery of a “lure” to a potential victim by pretending to be some trustworthy person or organization in order to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information. According to Knowbe4, the word “phishing” first appeared in a Usenet newsgroup called AOHell in 1996 and some of the very first phishing attacks used AOL Instant Messenger to deliver fake messages purportedly from AOL employees in the early 2000s. The word is part of l33tspeak that started in the early days of the internet (1980s) as a shorthand to let readers know the author was part of the hacker community. In this case, the letters “ph” replace the letter “f” in the word fishing, as in “I fish, with an ‘f,’ for bass in the lake.” In hacking, “I Phish, with a ‘ph,’ for login credentials from key employees at my target’s organization.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More episodes of the podcast Word Notes
Apple Lockdown Mode (noun)
06/01/2026
Simulated Phishing (noun)
30/12/2025
Sideloading (noun)
23/12/2025
Microsegmentation (noun)
16/12/2025
Homograph phishing (noun)
09/12/2025
Anti-cheat software (noun)
02/12/2025
Pseudoransomware (noun)
25/11/2025
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) (noun)
18/11/2025
Private Network Access (PNA) (noun)
11/11/2025
Web 3.0 (noun)
04/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.