New security threat: flirt-bots
p2pnet news | Security:- Here’s a new one.
Flirt-bots — AI software so cunning in application it’s able to wheedle sensitive personal information out of lovelorn surfers.
Says The Telegraph:
“Called CyberLover, the piece of software developed in Russia masquerades as a real man or woman who is seeking love online.
“It is capable of conducting flirtatious conversations with people in chat-rooms and on dating sites as a means of luring vital information from its unwitting victims.
“According to its creators, it can establish a new relationship online with up to 10 people in just 30 minutes.”
The story quotes online security firm PC Tools with company analyst Sergei Shevchenko saying, “”Internet users today are generally aware of the dangers of opening suspicious attachments and visiting URLs, but CyberLover employs a new technique that is unheard of.
“That’s what makes it particularly dangerous.”
But the concept of computer/human interaction isn’t anything new.
Joseph Wiezbaum’s Eliza amazed people s far back as the mid-1960s.
“The program was able to converse about any subject, because it stored subject information in data banks,” says library.thinkquest.
Eliza picked up speech patterns and the post includes an Eliza “talking” to a teenage girl. From it, you can get an idea of how CyberLover culls information from victims.
The teenager is lower-case
Men are all alike.
IN WHAT WAY
They’re always bugging us about something or other.
CAN YOU THINK OF A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE
Well, my boyfriend made me come here.
YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME HERE
He says that I am depressed all the time.
I AM SORRY TO HERE YOU ARE DEPRESSED
It’s true that I am unhappy
DO YOU THINK COMING HERE WILL HELP YOU NOT TO BE UNHAPPY
I need help, that seems certain.
WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF YOU GOT SOME HELP
Perhaps I could learn to get along with my mother.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY
My mother takes care of me.
WHO ELSE IN YOUR FAMILY TAKES CARE OF YOU
My father.
YOUR FATHER
You are like my father in some ways.
WHAT RESEMBLANCE DO YOU SEE
You are not very aggressive but I think you don’t want me to notice that.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I AM NOT VERY AGGRESSIVE
You dont argue with me.
WHY DON’T YOU THINK I ARGUE WITH YOU
You are afraid of me.
DOES IT PLEASE YOU TO BELIEVE I AM AFRAID OF YOU
My father is afraid of everybody.
WHAT ELSE COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR FATHER
Bullies.
DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME HERE
CyberLover isn’t so new after all.
Also See:
The Telegraph – ‘Cyberlover’ flirts its way to internet fraud, December 10, 2007
library.thinkquest – Eliza, psychotherapist, 1987
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December 12th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Ha! I’ve got to say, that’s pretty funny. I remember Eliza and I still think it’s a very interesting, ahead of its time piece of software. It’s interesting that the threats to data and so on which we’ll face in the future are going to be far more intelligent and conniving… and they’ll work particularly well when they prey on people’s vanity.