Phishing attacks have increased a lot these days. Infact hackers are now using a more sophisticated method called Pharming. So what is this so called Phishing and Pharming? Keep reading to find out…
Phishing, also called as spoofing, is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where there are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organisation already has.
The term ‘Phishing’ comes from the fact that these Internet scammers use sophisticated lures as they ‘fish’ for user’s financial information and password data.
Phishing is spelt with a ‘Ph’ because hackers commonly replace the letter ‘f’ with ‘Ph’.
In Pharming, the DNS server software is exploited and the hacker acquires the domain name of a site and redirects traffic from that site to another Web site. This site is then used to steal or “phish” a visitor’s account details, or even the payment information.
Ok, now you know what Phishing and Pharming is. Now how do you avoid such attacks?
Well, the easiest way to avoid being a victim of such attacks is to be cautious as to where you give out your personal details such as credit card numbers, passwords and other payment or billing information such as bank account numbers or credit card details.
You can also use a good anti-phishing software. These programs are often integrated with Web browsers and e-mail clients as a toolbar that dispalys the real domain name for the visiting Web site. This prevents the most common form of Phishing attack called spoofing.
Browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 have in-built Phishing filters that automatically checks the visited web site against a list of reported phishing websites.
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