Phishing is the motive of sending unlawful or swindling communications that become visible to approach from a famous source. It is commonly done through email which has been practiced widely across the world. The main motive in this act is to steal highly sensitive information such as credit card, debit card and login information of accounts, or even to install malware on the system of the victim. Phishing is a general kind of cyber threat that everyone should acquire information about it so as to safegurad themselves.

Types of Phishing Attacks

There are four types of common phishing attacks that are used to steal sensitive data from any system or computer. They are Deceptive Phishing, Spear Phishing, Whaling, and Pharming.

Deceptive Phishing

Deceptive phishing is said to be the most common phishing type known among the world. In this situation, an attacker endevours to gain confidential data from the victims. The attackers employ the data to launch other attacks or to steal money. Any fake email asking you to click a link from a bank  or for verifying your account details is the most common example of deceptive phishing.

Spear Phishing

Spear phishing marks particluar individuals instead of a broad group of people. Attackers oftentimes  analyse their victims on social media and various websites. Using this way, they can modify their communications and seem more genuine. Spear phishing is majorly the initial step used to understand the defenses of company and carry out a marked threat.

Whaling

When the hackers go after a big fish such as a CEO or manager, it is known as whaling. Such attackers oftentimes spend prominent time over profiling the target and to observe the favorable instant likely stealing of login credentials of personal or company’s accounts. Whaling is of specific concern because the high-level executives are capable to acquire access of company information.

Pharming

Pharming is just similar to phishing which means, it sends users to a unlawful or swindling website that sems to be authorized. But, in such situation, the victims never even have to click a harmful link to be acquired to the bogus website. The hackers can spoil either the computer of the user or the DNS server of the website and redirect the user to a fake website even if the correct website URL is typed in it.

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