phishing

Phishing is a fraudulent act since it involves the process of an unauthorized entity trying to present themselves as an authorized entity with the aim of having access to unauthorized data or information by obtaining the usernames, passwords and may be even credit card details of an authorized entity.

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phishing

TYPES OF PHISHING.

Phishing is a fraudulent act since it involves the process of an unauthorized entity trying to present themselves as an authorized entity with the aim of having access to unauthorized data or information by obtaining the usernames, passwords and may be even credit card details of an authorized entity.

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It mainly happens when intruders mainly lure individuals into opening emails and stealing sensitive data from through them through the process. People fall victim of this since many are unaware of this type of technique which is an attack to gain access of data that they are not authorized to.

Phishing can be categorized into the following types.

Email phishing

This occurs when an individual is send an email from a hacker through an unknown source to may be check some of his bank account transactions and the individual falls victim by clicking the link which he finally fills the details which the hacker uses to gain access.

Spear phishing

This is the most common type of phishing used by hackers to gain unauthorized access to data. It is commonly used in social media sites by hackers to gather information about targeted individuals or companies. The hackers gain personal information from an individual such as their name, email address, place of employment and job title.

This type of phishing can be prevented by an organization educating its employees hence creating awareness of this type of attack.

Whaling.

This type of phishing targets senior employees in an organization such as managers since it is believed that they have access to majority of the data in an organization. The targets of this type of phishing are mostly organizations that deal in large amount of data such as health organizations and banks.

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Smishing

It involves the sending of malicious text messages to users mobile numbers which consist of a link which lures the individuals to click it .Once the user clicks the link, their data will be submitted to the hacker or person trying to access the data by unauthorized means.

Vishing

This type of phishing is conducted through voice and is done using phone calls. The person trying to gain unauthorized access pretends to be a friend, relative or even a colleague at work and proceeds with the plan to gain access to information. The intruder mimics the voice of the authorized user and takes advantage of the situation to his benefit.This type of phishing can be prevented by avoiding to pick calls from unknown numbers and avoiding to give personal information through phone calls.

Pharming.

It involves the changing or interfering with the IP address of a website name, which upon clicking then redirects the internet user to a malicious website where the user’s data or personal information is captured and accessed by the hacker.

Pharming can be prevented by internet users taking precaution first to only access websites with https for protection and ensuring that the type of antivirus installed in the computer is up to date.