What does phishing mean?
Do you ever stop and think about how crazy it is that so many of us live such large proportions of our lives online in the 21st century? At Winzum we’re always marvelling at this, especially considering that our wonderful online competition community simply could not exist without the level of online connectivity that we all enjoy today.
Whilst there are millions of positives, the drawback is that online safety has also become harder to 100% guarantee. Things like phishing scams, for example, are getting more and more prevalent as time goes on, making online safety sometimes difficult to achieve.
We take the online safety of our customers incredibly seriously at Winzum, as you might know already from articles such as this one [How Winzum keep your data secure]. As a result we have a pretty healthy understanding of dangerous things like phishing, however with this example in particular it isn’t something that most people know too much about. We always love to educate over at Winzum, so keep reading for a lowdown on exactly what phishing means.
An overview of phishing
Unfortunately there are a lot of nasty people on the Internet, and many of them are looking to take advantage of people through phishing, something that can often result in quite a lot of financial pain. But what is phishing? Everybody has probably heard the phrase phishing attack or phishing scam before, but actually understanding what these things are is a different.
Phishing meaning is derived from “fishing”, however instead of using bait to catch fish, cyber criminals use online bait to access other people’s personal information. This is typically in the form of a real looking fake email asking you to update your password or download a new piece of software.
Phishing scammers can replicate very sophisticated copies of the kind of emails you may get from companies such as Amazon or iTunes, and this is why they are so dangerous. In most cases you won’t know it is a phishing scam until it is too late.
Some common examples of phishing
The most common examples of phishing still tend to be via email, however it is important to realise the possibility that phishing can happen over multiple mediums these days, such as over WhatsApp or Facebook.
In most cases a phishing scam will try and scare people with something that you instantly need to sort out. An “URGENT” message from your bank, for instance, is one of the most frequently used, because people may click on a malicious link without even thinking.
How to safeguard yourself from phishing
If you are scared about phishing scams there is good news, because even simply reading about and understanding the meaning of phishing will instantly make you a lot more aware in everyday life. The easiest way to combat phishing scams is to stay vigilant, and never take an email at face value.
Furthermore, although phishing scammers can use an email name that looks very similar to a company you have an account for, more often than not if you hover over it in your email browser the real email address will show. There are other ways to stop phishing scams here [the best ways to stop phishing scams].