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A phishing attack is so named because
people cast the bait on the internet via email in hopes that you will
bite. It is true that
with the emergence of the Internet came along a new method of identity
theft and it is termed phishing. No, not fishing-although it does sound
the same and the concept is similar.
A phishing attack is so named because people cast the bait on the
internet via email in hopes that you will bite. If you do so, they can
lure personal information out of you to aid in the theft of your
identity. These scams are much more recognizable now, however there are
new phishing attacks that are created daily, including some that involve
major companies asking you to verify your account information.
Phishing is now considered ‘kid stuff’ compared to the newer techniques
that are being used by these online criminals. Nowadays, you don’t even
need to click an email link to give your personal information-this new
technique is called pharming. The term pharming is just a new name for
the relatively old concept domain spoofing. Basically they work quietly
to redirect your web request to a different site by poisoning your
Domain Name Server. As far as your browser is concerned, you are
connected to the correct site. The big problem is that you can’t tell
you aren’t on the right site just by looking at your browser’s address
bar. Everything may look completely legitimate, and with most new
pharming schemes, they are created to be as close to the legitimate one
as possible. In order to remove pharming as a threat, servers would have
to add another layer of authentication to their websites-essentially
proving to you that they are who they say you are and establish a
trusted link between your computer and theirs. Right now, most Internet
browsers have this capability, however most servers do not. Some sites
offer certificates-perhaps you have seen them-a pop-up dialogue box asks
if you want to trust the certificate. If the name on the certificate
doesn’t match the site you are trying to access, then do not accept-this
could be a possible pharming scam.
Terms &
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