| Abstract
Phishing is a very sophisticated cyber-crime, committed
through social engineering techniques or fraudulent
email messages that appear to come from legitimate businesses.
It is essentially a kind of identity-theft, in which
unsuspecting users are tricked into revealing sensitive
personal information (credit card numbers, social security
numbers, passwords etc.), thus making themselves susceptible
to malicious intent.
Using techniques like fraudulent email messages, fake
pop-ups etc. and exploiting vulnerabilities present
in the Internet browsers, the scammer can prompt the
end-user to divulge critical information. Due to the
inherent nature of such attacks, traditional safeguards
like firewalls prove to be ineffective. Thus, awareness
of risks and discretion in Internet use are the only
bulwarks against such attacks. This white paper explains
a number of weak spots which are exploited by people
who are involved in phishing and explores a range of
precautions and measures to be taken by the end-users
to prevent phishing.
Author
Debasis Mohanty
More about Wipro e-Business
Solution |
