Top Data Anonymization Techniques

 What is a Phishing Attack?

A phishing attack is a type of cyberattack in which cybercriminals send messages acting as a trusted individual or institution. This message can be delivered to the user by email, messaging apps, or even SMS. Phishing messages mislead users toward doing things like installing malicious files, opening malicious links, or revealing personal information like account passwords.

How Does a Phishing Attack Work?

A phishing attack generally a part of a larger operation to acquire as many victims as possible from a vast variety of targets and demographic goods. Here we will discuss how it works:

• A malicious hacker sends a message or an email to the user while pretending to be a reliable source.
• The user assumes the email received from the identified sender, whether it is a bank or a firm, and clicks on the malicious link to a fake web page, which looks as similar to an actual website as possible.
• The user is asked to provide confidential information on the fake site, such as login details for a specific website. When the information is provided, it is transferred to the attacker who created the website and malicious email.
• When the attacker receives the login details, they are free to use them. 

Types of Phishing Attack

1. Deceptive Phishing: In this attack, a single phishing email is sent to a large number of individuals, possibly thousands, without much prior research.

2. Spear Phishing: In this tactic, attackers conduct a small amount of research to improve their chances of success in phishing attacks. If you are a daily buyer from Amazon, a phishing attempt that appears to be from Amazon is more likely to be opened by the target than a random survey or email. Here, the attackers do more research on their targets’ online behaviour and trigger them to act based on that information. 

3. Whaling: Whaling, as the names indicate, is a type of attack in which the attackers go for the large fish. It usually occurs at the corporate level or even targets the CEOs of multiple organizations. The attackers do more background study of their targets here due to them being mostly HNIs.

4. Pharming: In a pharming attack, attackers acquire domain names adjacent to major sites such as www.gogle.com or www.facebook.com, expecting a user to type such a URL immediately. Here the attackers manipulate online traffic and trigger users to share confidential information that wouldn’t share otherwise to any malicious website.

How to Prevent Phishing Attacks?

1. Email Authenticity: Always double-check the source and details of a confidential email that requests private information. So that we can prevent email phishing. Understand your emails more thoroughly and avoid falling for “traps” that try to trigger you to take any unsolicited or illogical action.

2. HTTPs Webpages: Users should make every effort only to visit websites that have an HTTPs encryption. The HTTPs encryption is a common SSL standard that varies the safety and security of a website that you’re visiting. Infact, most browsers trigger warnings if you try to visit any non-ssl secured website on them. 

3. Avoid Pop-ups: One should avoid clicking on random pop-ups that offer games or offer tempting monetary rewards for doing so. Attackers use this alluring online trigger to manipulate user behaviour by offering attractive schemes that grab attention based on individual online behaviour.

4. Password Rotation: To ensure the best security of personal data, users must change their passwords every few months. Passwords are the most vulnerable credential of your online life so it is recommended that you take special precautions to securely store and change them on a continuous basis. 

How can InfosecTrain Help You?

InfosecTrain provides a variety of cyber security certification training courses that cover all of the topics required to prevent phishing attacks.