Ping! Are you confused by the credibility of emails brimming in your inbox constantly, asking you to update your bank credentials and credit card details? You are not alone. The baits in the world of phishing are increasing by the day.The vicious party sends out the traps mostly via emails or instant messaging. This leads to the individuals feeding in personal information to a fake website or email which copies the legitimate one. Phishing often leads to websites that are loaded with malware. Loss of money and valuable data are only some of the gruesome consequences. So read on to train yourself against phishing attacks today.
Types of Phishing
The most common of all phishing types is spear phishing where in attackers make use of personal information about a specific person or company. Cloning is another type where a previously sent legitimate email gets cloned into a malicious version, which claims to be a resend or update of the previous mail. The third type is called whaling wherein the emails take a more executive level approach and target the upper management of a company. The emails talk about some false company-wide concerns that require urgent action to push the senior managers to comply. Here are a few tips to master defense against the various types of phishing.
Anti-phishing Tips
Follow anti-phishing websites like Fraudulent Watch International that posts the exact phishing messages. Browsers like Mozilla, Microsoft, and Safari all come guarded against phishing sites. Most banks use mobile phone details to run a second authenticity check on the user while dealing with financial information. The user can do the same in most cases.
Eradicate Phishing Emails
Most browsers can be set to advanced settings to eradicate the phishing mail, even before it reaches the recipient’s inbox or most commonly it provides for post-delivery eradication through email provider –level integration. Whenever you come across an important seeming mail or website, always verify with the mentioned company before responding.
Enhance your password strength and variability
It is important to use varied combination of passwords for different sites and especially for all financial transactions. Combine passwords with specific images and not just alpha-numerals.
Report Phishing Sites
It becomes important for individuals to also report about various phishing sites and add to the overall safe experience on the web. For example phishing sites and emails can be reported to Google.
Confused where to begin your defense training? There are many online platforms that try to incorporate an interactive online scenario that puts the user in a real time phishing attack and tests his/her decision making and coping ability click here to take a demo test now.