Consultant

The Phishing attacks are being increasingly used as a way to access personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and social security numbers and so on. To protect yourselves from this recent problem while you are online, you need a combination of technological decisions and increased attention to all kinds of messages that you receive on your computer.

Phishing is an online attack used by fraudulent people on the internet to gain access to your confidential information. The way such fraud can happen is by sending you a message via email, for example. Certain fraudulent messages could mislead you to open them, especially if they come from a reliable source, such as your bank.

In most cases, the deceptive email would ask you to visit a certain website in order for you to update your personal information for a specific service being done to you, such as online banking. When you click on the given website, it would be identical to the one that usually provides your service. In reality, the website is an imitation of the real one, with the only purpose being to deceive you to give out confidential information. The information you give would later become the possession of fraud.

Phishing attacks become more and more popular, according to professional studies done by multiple companies. The frequency of such attacks depends on the country which you are in. The most intense phishing happens in the US. Recently, there is an increase of such attacks in Europe as well.

To avoid even the smallest risk to be caught by the “hook” of the phishing, you have to follow a few simple but very effective rules. If you coordinate these rules with a good software choice, you will most likely save yourself a great deal of trouble.

1. Under no circumstances should you reply to any emails requiring you to give your personal or financial information. Also, never click on the links provided by the fraudulent messages. Be sure that the legitimate companies that provide you with services would never ask you for such information via email correspondence, due to its uncertainty and insecurity. If you would like to check if the email is real, call the number of the company that requires you to give out your information. Make sure the number you call belongs to the company. Another thing you can do is open up a new window in your browser and manually type the link to your company to ensure that it really requires you to update your confidential information. Never copy and paste the link directly from the email. The phishing can once again deceive you and lead you to think that you are at the right website, while you may be at a fraudulent one.
2. Regardless of who sends you an email, be cautious when you open or download attached files. Some files may contain viruses or other harmful software (i.e. Trojan), which may weaken your computer’s security.
3. Utilize software which contains security devises that protect your computer against phishing attacks, such as an anti-phishing filters.
   

The bottom line is that each internet user must be always cautious when opening up attached files to emails or when clicking on the links provided by fraud. Never give email messages the benefit of the doubt, regardless of who the sender is.