This blog explores phishing – the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.

Minimalist illustration of a world map overlaid with speech bubbles representing text messages containing links, some marked safe, some dangerous, and some unknown, using soft neutral colours and clean geometric lines.

The illusion of evolution: why the “Smishing Deluge” isn’t new and what Palo Alto missed

Paul Walsh November 11, 2025

Palo Alto Networks recently described a “sophisticated global smishing operation” built on a complex ecosystem of brokers, developers, and spammers. The language is familiar. Every major vendor publishes similar reports each year, filled with technical diagrams and claims of evolution and complexity. Yet the outcome never changes. People are still

Two identical silver cars side by side, one labeled Automatic and the other Manual, with the caption below reading “They look the same. They’re not.”

Why protecting the true meaning of Zero Trust for web links and phishing protection matters

Paul Walsh November 6, 2025

Picture this. You manage security for a government agency or large corporation and you need a reliable way to protect employees from phishing on mobile devices. You will learn what Zero Trust means for web links, how it differs from threat detection, what a Cloudflare and iVerify announcement really does,

A ceiling-mounted smoke alarm glows faintly above bright orange flames rising below, with text that reads, “We’ll protect you from fires, but stay vigilant in case one we haven’t seen before engulfs your home.”

What if “stay vigilant” is proof that cybersecurity is broken?

Paul Walsh November 5, 2025

Imagine buying a smoke alarm and being told by the company, “We’ll protect you from fires, but stay vigilant in case one we haven’t seen before engulfs your home.” You’d think they’d lost their minds. Nobody buys a safety device that shifts responsibility back to the user the moment it’s

OpenAI’s Atlas browser: a new browser, but an old mistake

Paul Walsh November 4, 2025

OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas, feels like a glimpse of the future. It’s fast, elegant, and powered by an AI that can explain, summarise, and search across everything you see online. But beneath the excitement lies a quiet omission that repeats one of the web’s oldest mistakes. Atlas launched without support

Paul Walsh

MetaCert CEO & Founder

This is blog is authored by Paul Walsh, one of the first people impersonated online while at AOL in 1996. His work focuses on the psychology of cybercrime. Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente put it best: “Paul, what you do is similar to an FBI profiler.” It’s an investigation into human deception - powered by technology built to stop it.

Watch the SIBOS Talk

This blog explores phishing - the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.

The illusion of evolution: why the “Smishing Deluge” isn’t new and what Palo Alto missed

Paul Walsh November 11, 2025

Why protecting the true meaning of Zero Trust for web links and phishing protection matters

Paul Walsh November 6, 2025

What if “stay vigilant” is proof that cybersecurity is broken?

Paul Walsh November 5, 2025

OpenAI’s Atlas browser: a new browser, but an old mistake

Paul Walsh November 4, 2025

Paul Walsh

MetaCert CEO & Founder

This blog is authored by Paul Walsh, one of the first people impersonated online while helping to launch new Internet technology at AOL in 1996. His work focuses on the psychology of cybercrime. Former FBI profiler Jim Clemente put it best: “Paul, what you do is similar to an FBI profiler.” It’s an investigation into human deception - powered by technology built to stop it.

Watch the SIBOS Talk

This blog explores phishing – the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.

The illusion of evolution: why the “Smishing Deluge” isn’t new and what Palo Alto missed

Why protecting the true meaning of Zero Trust for web links and phishing protection matters

What if “stay vigilant” is proof that cybersecurity is broken?

OpenAI’s Atlas browser: a new browser, but an old mistake

This blog explores phishing - the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.

The illusion of evolution: why the “Smishing Deluge” isn’t new and what Palo Alto missed

Why protecting the true meaning of Zero Trust for web links and phishing protection matters

What if “stay vigilant” is proof that cybersecurity is broken?

OpenAI’s Atlas browser: a new browser, but an old mistake

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This blog explores phishing – the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.​

This blog explores phishing - the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.

Company

Support

Connect with Us

This blog explores phishing – the internet’s longest-running con. It examines how deception works, why conventional security keeps failing, and what needs to change to stop it.