What is phishing and how to protect yourself?

Nowadays, cybersecurity is associated by most people with malicious users who hack websites or steal passwords. But there is another way to steal personal data – using social engineering, i.e., tricking people into revealing personal information or providing access to data networks.

Social engineering attacks can be different. Phishing is a type of Internet fraud, the purpose of which is to obtain user confidential information. Phishing includes stealing passwords, credit card numbers, bank accounts, etc. Phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Hackers are trying to scare the user and come up with a critical reason for them to give out their personal information.

Like ordinary fishermen who use many ways to catch fish, insidious phishing hackers use a number of methods that allow them to 'hook' their victim.

Hackers impersonate some legitimate person or organization by sending emails to all the email addresses they have, using the 'spray and pray' approach.



Spear Phishing involves sending malicious emails to specific individuals within an organization. Thus, scammers target certain employees in specially selected companies.



Whaling is similar to Spear Phishing, but instead of harassing any employee in the company, scammers specifically target executives or 'big fish.' Such an email prompts the recipient to follow a malicious link or an infected attachment for more detailed information.



In the case of Business Email Compromise, an attacker gains access to the email account of a high-ranking executive. Having a compromised account at his disposal, a cybercriminal, posing as the CEO, sends emails to employees of the organization to carry out some illegal actions.



Social Networks Phishing involves using social networks to obtain confidential data of victims or to lure them to click on certain malicious links. Hackers can create fake accounts posing as someone the victim knows.



Smishing is the same as when carrying out phishing attacks by email. However, in this case, the attackers use SMS text messages.



Vishing or Voice Phishing often transmits an automatic voice message supposedly from a legitimate organization (for example, a bank). Attackers may claim that your credit card has a suspicious activity that needs to be corrected immediately.



Farming is also a scam aimed at obtaining users' personal data, not through email, but through official websites. Farmers replace the digital addresses of legitimate websites on DNS servers with fake addresses, resulting in users being redirected to fraud sites. The most popular phishing targets are eBay and PayPal. How to protect yourself from phishing?

The first step is your ability to assess the situation. Next, learn to recognize the signs of phishing and adhere to basic security principles when checking emails or reading Facebook posts.

Here are some simple rules that will help you not get hooked by scammers:

Phishing is the simplest method of cyberattack, which, nevertheless, is one of the most effective. A low level of user awareness facilitates the success of phishing scams.