Phishing is a form of social engineering where the victim is tricked into giving away sensitive information.
Email phishing: The most common form of phishing where scammers pose as a service you use via email, telling you that something is wrong with your account. They say you need to click on a link and fill out a form. The form they send you is controlled by the scammers, and all the information you enter into these fake forms goes to the scammers.
Additionally, here is a list of phishing types to be aware of:
Email Phishing, Spear Phishing, Whaling, Vishing, Smishing, Clone Phishing, Pharming, HTTPS Phishing, Business Email Compromise (BEC), Angler Phishing, Pop-up Phishing, Evil Twin Phishing, Tabnabbing, Watering Hole Phishing, Search Engine Phishing, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Phishing, CEO Fraud, Social Media Phishing, Malvertising.
These will have their own entries.
Everything from personal information like address, name, date of birth to financial information like card numbers and bank details.
Other information that can be compromised: Login information, confidential business information, medical information, and government IDs.
Sensitive information being compromised can cause a lot of damage if one is not careful. Therefore, it is recommended to implement measures such as multi-factor authentication and be cautious about which links you click on.
Playing on close relationships: Scammers often pose as someone you trust and who needs help. For example, think about if your child was in a financial crisis and needed help or a mother who needs a loan.
Playing on strong emotions: Scammers can play on fear, curiosity, trust, sympathy, and greed, often in combination with time pressure.
Using time pressure: Not only is something dangerous and therefore scary, but it is also urgent. Scammers often use time pressure in combination with fear to trick you.
Sicra can implement and follow up on various solutions that prevent phishing. Through our CISO-for-hire service, we can also provide security consulting that can equip employees with the knowledge to avoid phishing.
Read about our "CISO-for-hire" service here >
Read about "security training" here >
Related terms: Email phishing, Spear phishing, Whaling, Vishing, Smishing, Clone phishing, Pharming, HTTPS phishing, Business email compromise (BEC), Angler phishing, Pop-up phishing, Evil twin phishing, Tabnabbing, Watering hole phishing, Search engine phishing, Man-in-the-middle (MitM), CEO fraud, Social media phishing, Malvertising, Social engineering.