Phishing – What is Phishing, Types and How to Prevent It

Cybersecurity is a popular topic today. Even though technical security is getting better, cybercrime is getting worse. Cyberattacks have become much more common. Phishing is one of the most popular and simplest ways for hackers to attack. 

Phishing happens when a network isn’t secure enough or when hackers use complicated methods to get into it. There are also other reasons. Even if your company has strong security measures in place, some phishing emails will still get through and cause problems. Let’s talk about the meaning of phishing, the types of phishing, and how to prevent it.

What is the Meaning of Phishing? 

Phishing is a cyberattack that involves contacting one or more targets by text message, email, or phone. Cybercriminals do it by pretending to be authorized people or institutions to get people to give them sensitive or private information. Some examples of such important personal information are bank account numbers or credit cards, passwords, and so on. 

With this information, cybercriminals have instant access to a secret data storage area or a crucial bank account. This leads to theft, fraud, or the loss of money. Given these scary results, it is important to know how to stop phishing. The first step in stopping this from happening is to know how to spot strange and unknown emails. 

How to Spot Phishing Emails

Look for the following signs to spot suspicious phishing emails:

• Domain names with misspelled words 
• Public email domains 
• Poor use of grammar and language 
• Links or attachments that look fishy 
• Urgent call to action

Types of Phishing Attacks

Most of the time, phishing means fraud done through email, but there are other kinds of phishing as well.

Phishing Emails

Email is the most common way to do phishing. Scammers sign up for fake domains that look like they belong to real companies. They send a lot of requests to the people they are trying to scam. 

Characters are often switched out in fake domain names, like when “r” and “n” are put next to each other to make “rn” instead of “m.” There are many ways to spot phishing emails, but when a message asks you to install an application or click a link, you should always check the email address.

Spear Phishing 

Spear phishing is like other phishing attacks in that it uses messages from a source that seems trustworthy to trick people. A spear-phishing attack, on the other hand, is aimed at a specific person or group of people rather than trying to send generic messages to many users in the hopes that one of them will fall for the trick. IT managers and HR staff are popular targets because they have more access to the organization as a whole.

Smishing and Vishing 

In smishing (SMS phishing) and vishing (voice phishing), mobile phones are used instead of email. With smishing, hackers send text messages that look like phishing emails but aren’t. Vishing happens over the phone, and the scammer talks to the target directly. 

In one common vishing scam, the scammer tries to pretend to be a fraud investigator from a credit card company. The scammer tells the victims that their accounts have been hacked and asks them to confirm their identity by giving credit card information. The attacker could also ask the victim to send money to a different account. 

Pharming 

Pharming is a type of phishing that is very technical, which makes it harder to spot. It happens when a hacker takes over the domain name server (DNS), which turns URLs into IP addresses. When a user types in the URL of the target website, the DNS sends them to a different IP address, which is usually a devious website that looks like a good one.

How to Avoid Phishing Attacks 

A business or company can only be successful if it is secure. Every business needs to know what phishing is and take strong steps to stop phishing attacks. Your defense is much stronger if you use strong and consistent cybersecurity practices. Don’t put off putting tight and appropriate security measures in place to ensure your business’s security. Here are some things you can do to stop phishing. 

Create a safe and secure environment

Pay attention to social engineering and building trust. Don’t blame or punish the workers who were victimized. If people play “who’s to blame,” no one will be held responsible, and the organization will suffer. 

Check to see if the emails are real

When you find a suspicious or important email, you should always double-check its validity and the address of the sender. Then check what’s inside and let the cybersecurity department know. 

Stay vigilant 

Phishing threatens the target and uses people’s psychology against them. These phishing emails use emotion, gratitude, or a false sense of urgency to get your attention and get you to act.

Train your employees 

People who know how to stop phishing will tell you to train your staff through programs that raise awareness. Checking how well this kind of training works is always a good idea. 

Keep your information private

Make sure you don’t give out your information on sites you don’t know or that aren’t safe. Don’t download anything from that website. 

Updating your browser 

Your browser should be kept up to date. Updates are meant to do something specific. They might make your security better and defend you from phishing attacks in the future.

Conclusion

Phishing prevention is important because more criminals are using online scams to get your personal information. We know how to avoid spam emails, but phishing emails can look like the real thing. Some of them are even made especially for you. 

Phishing can be hard to deal with at times, but if you follow the simple tips and advice in this article and use the right tools to stop phishing, you can greatly reduce your chances of getting scammed online.

For more details, you can visit Piramal Finance’s website and explore their