Phishing is one of the most common risks that we can find on the Internet. Its purpose is scamming the victim and obtaining confidential information.
You just received an email, you open it and it turns out to be a message that says the following: “Your order is on its way, but there has been a problem and some personal information needs to be completed.” So far it may look completely normal, if it weren't for the fact that you are actually not expecting any packages. Does this situation sing a bell? We are undoubtedly facing a common case of phishing. It is a classic in the cyber world. And although it has been around on the network for many years, nowadays a multitude of attacks of this type are still being launched.
Scammers are the first to innovate in their tactics and every day we are faced with more real-looking attacks
But first and foremost, let's start at the very beginning, what is a phishing attack? It is a form of cybercrime that consists of sending emails that appear to be from a trustworthy provider but whose purpose is to manipulate and defraud the recipient and thus obtain confidential information.
You may usually find messages alerting that there has been an error for example in the electricity bill and it is necessary to correct some data, or for example messages where the receiver has supposedly been awarded in a raffle of a well-known brand.
Although its most common means today is email, this type of attack is also carried out through WhatsApp or even SMS.
Scammers are the first to innovate in their tactics and every day we are faced with more real-looking attacks. However, we can always find clues that will help us recognize whether the message comes from a dangerous source.
The formula that phishing messages follow in most cases is the same, a story where they try to deceive the customer in order to make him click or open an attachment, thus activating the virus.
We talk about messages with content such as the following:
According to a recent study by Panda Security, with the increase in teleworking and its consequent use of applications and office suites, it has been a major focus of phishing attempts, but there is more.
Transport and delivery companies are a sector that is seeing messages being popularized impersonating their name to make customers believe that they are receiving a package.
In addition, we can find this type of attack in internet payment services, streaming services, social networks and in different departments of the public administration, such as an error notice in the income tax return.