How an Alibaba iOS Engineer Built a Mobile Anti‑Phishing Shield

Wind Ming, the iOS technical lead of Alibaba's anti‑fraud platform, shares his background—from graduating at Tianjin University and pursuing a master’s at Zhejiang University to joining a leading security firm and eventually moving to Hangzhou with his wife, who works in development testing.

Beyond coding, he enjoys cooking, cycling, and maintaining a balanced lifestyle, challenging the stereotype of the reclusive programmer.

Both he and the author have experienced fraud: Wind was scammed during a train transfer in Beijing, and the author had a credit‑card theft via a Hong Kong website, leading them to discuss how phishing exploits human empathy and greed.

Wind’s team created the "global anti‑phishing" feature for the 钱盾 app, which can detect and block malicious links from SMS, browsers, WeChat, or QR codes on mobile devices—a capability that was technically difficult to implement on smartphones compared to the PC era.

Regarding KPI at Alibaba, Wind explains that stability and innovative output, such as the anti‑phishing technology, are the core evaluation criteria, while code volume or bug counts are less emphasized.

He emphasizes a collaborative product‑operation‑technology mindset: projects succeed when all parties share a common vision, experiment quickly, and avoid endless debates, ensuring both product viability and team sustainability.

Ultimately, Wind stresses that innovation must serve users, and leaders must maintain a crisis awareness to keep their teams relevant and valuable.