Bad Actor Safari
Understanding who is out to get you on the Internet
At various times I’ve worked on anti-abuse projects including on Google Maps and Search. I’ve run a team managing user identity. I’ve carried a pager for abuse and seen some of the terrible things people do to each other for profit or fun. Despite this, I don’t consider myself an expert in security (I’m lucky enough to have some friends who are) and the Internet scares me. This despite making a career out of it for over 20 years. As we increasingly realise that the tool we have created has taken on a darker existence it’s worth getting to know the people out there who are out to get you. For people building products — know you have a responsibility to protect your users from them. For people using the Internet understand it’s not all happy unicorns and candyfloss.
Firstly, abuse only happens for one of two reasons:
- There’s benefit to be made by doing so. This might be in the form of money, geopolitical influence or local influence.
- People consider it fun to do so. This might be boredom such as a room full of frat boys pretending to be a woman on a dating site or someone exploring what they can access on another system. Or something more sinister — such as paedophile rings, trolling or doxxing where the outcome is to cause suffering.
