Operation Phish Phry Case Study

The act of phishing has been around since the mid-1990s, but it was not legally defined as a crime until the early 2000s when it became more widespread (Rekouche 2011). To help understand the implications of phishing, this essay will critically view a significant case study that happened in 2009, Operation Phish Phry’. Understanding the actions taken by the various actors involved in this case could provide an insight regarding the countermeasures proposed by relevant authorities about phishing. Additionally, I would argue that the proposed countermeasures are insufficient and that there is still room for improvements which I will cover in this essay.
Phishing is a form of online fraud and theft in which the scammer sends out fake emails made
Regarded as the largest ever cyber-crime bust, the 2-year long investigation saw the FBI working together with multiple different law enforcement agencies such as the Los Angeles Electronic Crimes Task Force and the Egyptian authorities. The investigation only begun when the FBI took an active approach in stemming out possible threats to the financial structure of the United States of America (USA) (Rouse 2009, McGlasson 2009). This seems to suggest that this scam could have gone unreported to the authorities or it was not taken seriously until the FBI stepped in. The end of the investigation led to the arrest of about 100 people in the United States and Egypt. Over the course of the investigation, the Egyptian authorities agreed to participate in the operation as the main offenders were out of the FBIs jurisdiction. The offenders of this scam were split into two categories, the technical aspect which were handled by the Egyptians whereas the non-technical aspect of the scam was handled by the Americans. The technical role of the Egyptians in this scam was to create the fake emails which they would send out to the masses to illegally acquire bank login credentials. This is the common technique used by would-be scammers when attempting to phish for victims (Norton 2017). There have been no reports whether the Bank of America and Wells Fargo were specifically targeted by the scammers but being the two largest customer bases in America seems to suggest that it was. Having a large customer base, increases the offender’s chances of acquiring the relevant login credentials. Upon successfully acquiring the bank account credentials, they would contact their partners in America who would then coordinate a transfer of the compromised account. The non-technical aspect to this case were managed by a small handful of Americans Kenneth Joseph