Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

jca111 · 09-04-2008, 12:54

Hi all

I've just had a thought! Every one in concentrating on consent etc.

BUT I've just read Dr Richard Clayton white paper on how Phorm works, and I realised something (extract from the white paper).

"The Layer 7 switch will see that the request does not contain a Phorm "cookie" and will direct the request to a machine located within the ISP network that will pretend to be www.cnn.com and will return a "307" response which says, in effect, "you want that page over there". The page that will be directed to is webwise.net/bind/?<parameters>where the parameters record the original URL that was wanted."

The key is "will pretend to be www.cnn.com" (or obviously any other website you are surfing.

Would it not be illegal to pretend to be another company or person in the UK without that company/persons permission? Particularly for commercial gain?

Phishing is a prime example of impersonation of a company, so surely this is just another form of that?

Anybody know how I can find out if impersonating a company is illegal?

09-04-2008, 12:54	#2686
jca111 Inactive Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 58	Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] Hi all I've just had a thought! Every one in concentrating on consent etc. BUT I've just read Dr Richard Clayton white paper on how Phorm works, and I realised something (extract from the white paper). "The Layer 7 switch will see that the request does not contain a Phorm "cookie" and will direct the request to a machine located within the ISP network that will pretend to be www.cnn.com and will return a "307" response which says, in effect, "you want that page over there". The page that will be directed to is webwise.net/bind/?<parameters>where the parameters record the original URL that was wanted." The key is "will pretend to be www.cnn.com" (or obviously any other website you are surfing. Would it not be illegal to pretend to be another company or person in the UK without that company/persons permission? Particularly for commercial gain? Phishing is a prime example of impersonation of a company, so surely this is just another form of that? Anybody know how I can find out if impersonating a company is illegal?