Security lessons from the Manti Te'o Story

Mama's don't let your sons grow up to be Catfish

Like many of you I was shocked yesterday when I heard about the Manti Te'o girlfriend hoax story. Having seen the interviews before the big BCS championship game and heard his heart-wrenching story from his own mouth on TV, I could not accept that this whole story about his girlfriend who died of cancer was a hoax. Then I listened to the news conference from the AD at Notre Dame, as well as 12 hours of the talking heads on TV and radio, and had a chance to go over it in my own head.

As I sit here writing this, I still don't know if Manti Te'o is telling the truth or not. I don't know if he was in on this whole thing as a way to enhance his Heisman Trophy status. If it was a little white lie that he and a friend started that grew bigger than they ever could imagine, eventually ensnaring themselves in a trap they couldn't escape. Or maybe, giving Te'o the benefit of the doubt, he really is the victim here. He was just an innocent, naïve young athlete who was taken in by some online fraudsters. No different than all of those crazy people who really do believe that the bank official in Nigeria has picked them to help dispose of the 12 million dollars left in a bank account of someone who died with no relatives.

Regardless of whether you believe Te'o or not, though, there is a lesson to be learned here. Many people are saying Te'o was either the victim of a "Catfish" scheme. In any event, you should be aware of what they mean by Catfish. Maybe we should call it "Catphish." The term references a controversial documentary released in 2010 about a young man who developed a relationship with a woman he only met online. Their relationship is filmed by his two friends. Eventually, they go to the woman's home and, of course, they find out that on the Internet "no one knows you are a dog."

But, seriously, it is a fascinating study in how we believe what we want to believe and how unscrupulous people can play with our emotions and lives using the Internet. I am embedding the trailer from the film below this paragraph (you may have to reload the page for it to show up). Have a look and then continue reading my story.

Unfortunately, this type of scheming has been going on long before the Catfish movie. I was using online services since way before the Internet was commercial. I remember Compuserve, Genie, AOL and more. How many of you have had conversations with people you met online? How many of you single or even married folks have spoken to others in a flirtatious manner online? I remember a funny cartoon I read years ago. It was an older, heavier guy playing on his computer in the dark. The bubble shows some talk between him and what is supposed to be a woman in a chat room. His wife says to him, "Herb, get out of that chat room, the 'girl' you are talking to is just another old, bald, fat guy like you."

Even before the AOL chat rooms, though, there was another service I belonged to. It was called the Imagination Network. My good friend Billy Nicholson and I were members. It had lots of different "lands" where you could play different games and activities. One was "Casino Land," sort of built in a Leisure Suit Larry sort of way (if you remember that great old computer game). You had to fax proof that you were 18 to get into Casino Land. Once in there you could create your own avatar (it was so ahead of its time), designing your look and persona. You could gamble (not real money) at various games. For most people, though, it was an online meat market. You could chat up other people there and go into private chat rooms. In the chat rooms you could give others flowers, hearts and even kisses, as well as chat. Remember, this is back in like 1994 or 1995. It was very cutting-edge over a 1200 or 2400 baud modem.

• Security

• Collaboration/Web 2.0

• Smartphones

• Wireless

• Alan Shimel

• AOL

• catfish

• CompuServe

• imagination network

• manti teo

• notre dame