Phishing Internet Privacy Protection

A new threat to users around the world is the lack of phishing internet privacy protection. On a computer phishing is the term for when a user attempts to criminally and fraudulently acquire private, personal and sensitive information such as user name and passwords, credit card information by misleading the user to believe they are a trustworthy source of communication. Common targets online are PayPal, eBay, and most of the online banks across the world. In essence, Phishing is generally carried out via email or instant messenger and will either direct users to a website or provide information through a reply.

Have you ever received an instant message from one of your buddies that maybe says something like “Check out my MySpace picture!!!” followed by an odd looking website link. Chances are these messages are fraudulent and are an attempt to get you to click that URL by any means necessary. This is an extremely useful technique especially with the computer illiterate that will have no idea of what they just clicked on and what it could potentially do to their system. The most recent of phishing attempts have targeted select customers of banks and online payment service accounts. These emails or messages will ask for sensitive or private information from you, never give this information out clearly. Some of these techniques are even targeted towards specific people. Recently there have been Phishing attempts directed at senior executives and other rich and high profile targets within the largest companies of the world. This term is also referred to as whaling due to the prestigious, specifically targeted personnel behind these phishing attempts.

The most recent and notable of these Phishing attempts has been directed towards social networking sites or directories. These networking sites generally provide quick and easy registration with simple means of identification and a quick means to spread these scams. Experiments of Phishing from social networking sites showed a success rate of over 70%, meaning that these attempts to Phish for information and private data are fooling the general public with relative ease. If you notice anything suspicious about a link or message, look it over a few times. Generally the URL or link will secretly link to a different page, or a site that you did not expect to reach. If you are a fan if these social networking sites and ever see a suspicious looking link possibly with one too many words or letters in their name, its most likely a scam to get your personal information. The only defense to these scams and Phishing techniques is the constant knowledge and proactive tools to defend against them. Your best bet is to stay on top of all the phishing internet privacy protection related technology and tools.