Our lives are increasingly moving online. This is convenient, but at the same time carries risks. One of them is a phishing attack. Cybercriminals gaining access to sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers and login credentials pose an increasingly serious threat to the modern world. Our guide is aimed at anyone who wants to understand phishing attacks better and discover: what they are, what their effects are, how to recognise them and, most importantly, how to protect themselves from them. Learn not to fall victim to cybercriminals protect your digital identity from phishing attacks.
Phishing attack – what is it?
A phishing attack is a technique used by cybercriminals to impersonate a trusted institution or person in order to obtain sensitive information, such as login credentials, credit card numbers or personal information. Attackers can pretend to be a courier company, telecommunications operators, administrative offices and even people in our immediate vicinity. Cybercriminals use social engineering to persuade their victims to act in accordance with their expectations.
Phishing attacks can take many forms. The most common are:
- e-mail phishing – a cybercriminal sends an e-mail that looks like it was sent by a trusted institution, such as a bank, asking for confirmation of login credentials,
- smishing (SMS Phishing) – is a technique in which phishing attacks are carried out via SMS,
- Voice phishing (Vishing) – here criminals use telephony in their operations, impersonating institutions,
- phishing on social networks – cybercriminals create fake profiles that look like those of trusted individuals or companies and send messages to victims.
Cybercriminals use a variety of software during their operations. The most popular are: PhishX, Phishing Frenzy and Swetabhsuman8.
What are the consequences of a phishing attack?
A phishing attack can lead to privacy violations, identity theft and financial losses. A person who is the victim of an attack may lose access to his or her email accounts, bank accounts or other online services. In addition, phishing attacks can negatively impact digital identities through unauthorised access to accounts.
How to recognise a phishing attack?
Wondering how to recognise that you have become the target of a phishing attack? Warning signs include:
- messages asking you to confirm or update your login information or payment information,
- messages with attachments that were not expected or came from strangers,
- Grammatical errors or typos in messages,
- URLs that do not match the sender’s name.
So keep in mind that genuine communications from trusted institutions usually do not ask you to send confidential information by email, text message or over the phone. If you receive a suspicious e-mail or message, do not click on any links, do not open attachments and do not reply to the message.
What to do after a phishing attack?
If you’ve fallen victim to a phishing attack, it’s important to quickly change the passwords to any accounts that may have been taken over. Also contact your bank or credit card company if your financial data may have fallen victim to an attack. Then monitor your accounts and credit reports to quickly spot unauthorised activity.
It’s also worth reporting a phishing attack to help law enforcement fight this type of cybercrime. This can be done through:
- Report the incident to local law enforcement agencies,
- Sending information about the attack to the national center for combating cybercrime,
- reporting a phishing attack to a company or institution that the cybercriminal was trying to emulate.
How to protect yourself from a phishing attack?
Protecting against phishing attacks requires certain online security practices. Relevant:
- Regular updates to software and systems,
- Use of strong and unique passwords,
- Enabling two-step authentication where possible,
- not opening attachments or links in emails from unknown senders,
- Use of anti-phishing software.
Phishing attacks pose a serious threat to online security, and recognizing and responding to them appropriately is key. To this end, it is important to always be alert and aware of various phishing techniques, and to know the typical warning signs of an attack. Become an informed Internet user and protect your digital identity from phishing attacks.
It’s also worth enlisting the help of professionals who not only detect threats, but also create long-term security strategies. At Elementrica, we use instruments such as:
