paint-brush
Phishing: Top Threat to Our Online Securityby@sunanda35
104 reads

Phishing: Top Threat to Our Online Security

by sunandaAugust 26th, 2020
Read on Terminal Reader
Read this story w/o Javascript
tldt arrow

Too Long; Didn't Read

Phishing is a cheap technique for hackers to steal the victim’s data. It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message. The recipient is then tricked into clicking a malicious link, which can lead to the installation of malware, the freezing of the system as part of a ransomware attack, or the revealing of sensitive information. The attacker who storing your personal data to their database to gain access to your personal social life.

Companies Mentioned

Mention Thumbnail
Mention Thumbnail
featured image - Phishing: Top Threat to Our Online Security
sunanda HackerNoon profile picture

Phishing is a cheap technique for hackers to steal the victim’s data. Now I am telling you because it really happened to me. It took my most online privacy.

One day, I received a mail from nearly looking like google.com. There was written that “New google service is launched, you have to upgrade this new feature by clicking a link. Otherwise, your current google account will be closed. So, they want me to open this link and log on. Actually they want to steal our account.

How does Phishing work?

Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user's data, including their login credentials, credit card numbers, and etc. It occurs when an attacker, masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text message. The recipient is then tricked into clicking a malicious link, which can lead to the installation of malware, the freezing of the system as part of a ransomware attack, or the revealing of sensitive information.

Some Phishing Examples —

Some spoofed emails sent that your most used website will expire your account soon. like these —

And many things can occur by clicking the link. For example —

  • User redirected to a website, that would be like the same website as the original. The attacker who storing your personal data to their database to gain access to your personal social life.
  • However, while being redirected, some malicious script activates to take the user’s browser session cookie. Using an XSS attack, hackers giving a perpetrator privileged access to the university network.

See it, the site is looking perfectly like Amazon. but take a look at the URL, it is different. right? So you have to notice this as well.

Your received email referral link would nearly similar to the original website. You have to see it very carefully to prevent phishing.

How to prevent Phishing?

Two-factor authentication — In this authentication system, to login into another session, you have to verify your authentication in another way. If hackers steal your password, but they can’t get OTP to login to other devices.

I hope you enjoyed this article and you will also be aware of your personal social security. You have any protection idea about this topic, let the world know your thoughts as a response.