What is Phishing Scams? How to Avoid Phishing Scams? Have you ever received emails telling you “You just won 10,000 Dollars” or a free vacation to a famous exotic island? Chances are all of us have encountered such emails. Are all internet users aware of the severe consequences and aware of the fact that this is a threat solely intended to virtually rob anything and everything possible out of you? Don’t let these attackers gain access to your login credentials, finance and personal accounts.
Why should anyone else be able to virtually impersonate you to damage who you are and take what you own? Phishing, more specifically Phishing URL is the culprit we are going to uncloak, let’s discuss how we can avoid such issues altogether and maintain our netizenship at our fullest.
Phishing in a Nutshell – A Quick Look into the Threat
The quickest and simplest way to put Phishing into instant comprehension; A Phishing URL is a deceptive web address designed to attract users into clicking such links through impersonation of trustworthy entities to create intense feelings of urgency, fear, greed or curiosity.
Most of such attacks come through in forms of social media messages, fake websites and especially emails, any person clicking these links of deceit will be immediately put under manipulative actions or scripts by hackers to gain access to specific important information or your whole computer. Common targets are users with old people and unaware users targeted through tempting offers to gain access to passwords, credit card numbers or other online payment details.
Attention Netizens! Here’s 5 Kinds of Destructive Phishing Attempts -Avoid Phishing Scams
- Email Phishing:
The most common attempt of Phishing, sending extremely attractive links offering “too good to be true” offers or present urgent actions anyone would click without thinking twice. The danger doesn’t end here, there are levels to Email Phishing, in some cases the emails are made to look exactly like reputed sources.
- Clone Phishing:
This is an attack done through cloning a legitimate email that may have previously been sent to the user, the attachments or links are replaced to a malicious link. Such attacks are harder to detect and may catch even the best of professionals.
- Pharming:
An redirecting attack that is there to take you away from a legitimate website to a malicious one without you even realizing though DNS spoofing, the weblinks are well designed to mimic exactly the website being surfed.
- Spear Fishing:
Unlike general phishing attempts that is casted through the wider internet, Spear Phishing is a highly targeted attack through specifically designed and customized messages towards individuals made to look credible using gathered information about the victim.
- Whaling:
While it is similar to Spear Phishing, it is aimed towards high-profile targets and organizations, tricking them into disclosing financial, account credentials, resource credentials or other sensitive information. This sophisticated attack could lead to significant financial and reputational damage to an organization.
Let’s Ensure Phishing Avoidance & Resistance
Avoid Phishing Scams-Safeguarding your personal and professional life is a large responsibility, we are here to help you achieve your virtual safety through this guide. Now that we are aware of the dangers, let’s dive in in practical ways to ensure you are never under Phishing Attacks.
Stay Informed:
For Avoid Phishing Scams-Knowing and acknowledging virtual danger is the first step towards protection, if we aren’t aware how will we be defending ourselves? Stay updated with us for the latest updates on Phishing for uniting your team against Phishing.
Verify the Source:
Any unexpected email you receive should be verified first, opening any links, attachments or folders is not recommended by any chance till you have confirmed the message is valid. For Avoid Phishing Scams-We recommend double checking URLs; look for spelling mistakes, shortened URLs, unusual domain addresses, extra characters and hover over links to check actual destination.
Security Software:
For Avoid Phishing Scams-Make use of Anti-Malware & Anti-Phishing Softwares to protect yourself from such attacks, ensure regular updates to be able to detect newer threats to your computers and your internal credentials for avoid phishing scams.
Strong Passwords:
Avoid Phishing Scams need to create strong passwords for protect your accounts and ensure your passwords are unique from one another, even under the most severe sophisticated attacks a single breach to one of your accounts will not be compromising the safety of all of your accounts. Consider using password managers to track and update your passwords when you find it necessary to do so.
Authentication Hardware/Software:
Adding extra layers of security to your accounts and stored confidential information makes access to your systems significantly harder for attackers to access and avoid phishing scams. Even if they have managed to unlock a few layers, they will still be entrapped within more layers and gain no control. Authentication systems can both be hardware and software systems, free software available is more than enough for most users.
Ensuing and actively implementing our listed practices help achieve our goals of increased internet safety and improved security for all Netizens and Professionals. We are constantly developing more digital habits as we speak. Staying vigilant reduces the risk of falling into a Phishing attack significantly so we can ensure no one is impersonating you, sabotaging your achievements and your reputation, causing a financial ransack or ransoming you. Remember the only defense in the digital world is active awareness and vigilance in your virtual activity.
