Finger was a popular protocol in the early days of the Internet, when the Internet was primarily used as a method of communicating directly between computers, rather than a source of public information for anyone in the world. As the Internet grew and millions of users were suddenly online, largely searching for information rather than specific users, there was not only less need for finger clients, but also more risk in continuing to support them. For example, companies running a finger client could easily be targeted for a social engineering attack, in which a hacker uses the finger client to obtain names, email addresses, and phone numbers for employees, which could then be used to contact employees and request confidential information.