Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods



What is Phishing?

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent (theft) process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing known as a nontechnical attack, it uses social pressures to trick computer users into compromising computer networks to which those individuals have access.
Prevention Methods:

1. Be cautious for opening file from emails that request of your financial information

We need to be cautious when opening any attachment or downloading files from e-mails that you received. You also need to aware regardless of who sent the e-mail to you. When you surf the internet, you need to be aware for the fake website which directly ask for your detail financial information and not to login the website, try to solve the problem at the bank itself.

2. Block the phishing e-mails by various spam filters

Phishers are usually use e-mails as “bait” to attract the potential victims. They can send out large amount of spoofed e-mails which are seemed from legitimate organizations. The phishers hide their identities when sending the spoofed e-mails, therefore, if anti-spam systems can determine whether an e-mail is sent by the attackers, the phishing attacks will be decreased dramatically.

3. Use strong passwords and change them often

Strong passwords combine with uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, which make them difficult for other people to guess. Use a different password for your each account can help you in avoid them to access.

4. Don’t straight away click the suspicious website

Remember all the domain name of the company and try not to click the link that are available inside the suspicious website, because it may contain any fake website that will attract you to click in.

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