Identity Theft has been around since the early 21st Century, and phishing for information has served the digital age as a reminder that it's not going away anytime soon. If you've ever seen an email asking for personal information that seemed out of place, full of typo's, or was sent from an email you don't quite recognize, then someone may have been attempting to Phish you. In the early 1990's the term phishing was coined by computer con-artist's who would attempt to hide themselves as representatives of companies hunting for personal information under the false-pretense of trying to help you. The term Phishing comes from people who who would fish for private information among a sea of internet users.
According to IBM, since 1996 phishers have made use of an increasing array of delivery systems in order to fool their victims into handing over confidential and personal information. Even after more than 10 years of phishing attacks, and much publicity, phishing scams are still hugely profitable to the professionals who run them.
It's easy to see why this type of computer fraud is dangerous. Anyone who has fallen victim to Identity Theft would know just how difficult it can be to put the pieces back together in life. You should consider that anything you have connected to the internet has some level of exposure to various types of cyber crime. Phishers can target personal information such as Social Security Numbers, Credit Card Data, personal information, usernames and passwords, and much more by taking advantage of easy to use tools, and readily obtainable public data.
Phishing attacks specifically take many forms, usually seeking to exploit someone's trust or lack of understanding of a technical matter. They can come in the form of a way-ward email from an authentic sounding name or source. In these cases, it's important to know just how these forms of attack can be accomplished to protect yourself against them. There are various forms of phishing attacks, Security Company sucuri.net shows various way phishers setup fake eCommerce sites to trick users into directly giving out private information without realizing it. Phishing attacks can come in the form of email as well. Cyber criminals with some basic web design knowledge can easily design an email to look just like that of a legitimate Financial Institution, or Insurance Company, or any number of businesses where you may have an online account. View the image below and become familiar with some of the distinct giveaway's that can help you determine if what your seeing is a legitimate request, or more likely one form that of a phisher.
Life Hacker explains that with the right mailing software, and access to a server that can send emails spammers can easily spoof an email address that looks like its from a legitimate source, a known colleague, or even from yourself. Identifying some of these red flags can help you understand and prevent becoming a victim of this type of cyber crime. Here's a few quick questions you should ask yourself when you think you may be a target of a phishing scam.
- Are you expecting to get an email that is requesting personal information or to reset a password?
- Does the source that's requesting your information look correct, is it misspelled, or contain typos?
- Does hovering over any of the links in the email show that it's going to another location than what the link indicates?
- Does the request for information start out with a generic intro such as 'Dear User', or 'Account Holder', etc?
By following best practices, asking questions, and being aware of how these types of scams work you can prevent yourself from becoming a victim of cyber crimes like phishing. We at Natural Networks pride ourselves on staying in the know when it comes to cyber threats like Phishing scams, and we are always working on way's to prevent this activity from occurring with our customers. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more, we highly encourage you to reach out to us at www.naturalnetworks.com/contact-us.
