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Phishing is an age-old technique that is still used by hackers to obtain personal information. It is a kind of attack where the hacker would masquerade as a trustworthy source that lure the user to reveal private credentials like login details, credit card number, debit card PIN, etc. Phishing happens mostly through e-mails. Traditionally, hackers sent a link through e-mail that redirected the user to an untrustworthy website demanding confidential information. These sites look genuine and gain the users’ confidence and lead them to disclosing personal details. Phishing attacks are characterized by mails being sent by reputed organizations with attachments. Once opened, these mails inject malware into the machine. If successfully executed, the system becomes a botnet, on most occasions. Here are five techniques that you can adopt to prevent attacks against phishing. 1.Watch out for the e-mail content Beware of e-mails that begin with a polite addressing like “Dear customer” or have erroneous spelling and grammar. Mails that have a compulsive tone and try to sound very urgent are better avoided. E-mails like this are mostly malicious and will invariably direct you to unsafe sites or use other techniques to gain your private information. 2.Be careful of opening attachments Avoid opening attachments from a source that you do not deal with. Hackers may also invade your friends’ or employer’s system and send you mails without their knowledge. You may call up the sender and verify if you sense something suspicious in the mail. A hacker faking someone else’s e-mail address is a common way of spreading the infection. 3.Be cautious of links! Sending untrustworthy links within e-mails is one of the most common techniques of phishing. The link, on most occasions read a genuine and safe path which is detoured to a different site using hacking techniques. You are suggested to visit the website manually instead of using the link, if they genuinely need it. Additionally, you can also do a mouse-over on the link to check for its actual path. 4.Reached a phishing website? Mislead it with wrong details If you doubt that you have been conned into a phishing website, do not panic. The simplest way to protect your privacy is by entering a wrong password. This will also allow you to clear your doubt with regards to the authenticity of the site. A forged site will always accept a wrong password and display you a message or page saying there is some technical fault. Meanwhile, if the site is genuine one, putting wrong password will not grant you entry. 5.Do not use old/used passwords It may be difficult to remember multiple passwords, but using the same password on different sites can make you an easy target of hackers. If you have different passwords, hackers will have to invade all your accounts individually. On the other hand, having different passwords will prevent information from getting hacked all at once. E-mail security is an essential part of protecting your privacy. Little knowledge on e-mail defense and its subsequent application can ensure much better protection of your privacy against scams like phishing. Adopt caution before opening e-mail attachments and links. Ensure that all your passwords are in place. This is applicable to both home as well as business users.
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