What is Phishing?

Phishing is one of the most widespread and effective social engineering tactics used by cybercriminals. In a phishing attack, an attacker pretends to be a trustworthy entity—such as a bank, social media platform, or online service provider—to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information, such as login credentials, credit card details, or personal data.

How Phishing Works:

The attacker sends a fraudulent email or message that appears legitimate.
The email often contains a sense of urgency, asking the victim to take immediate action, such as resetting a password or verifying an account.
A malicious link leads the victim to a fake website that closely resembles the real one.
The victim enters their credentials, which are then captured by the attacker.
The attacker uses stolen credentials to access the victim's accounts or sell the data on the dark web.

Common Types of Phishing Attacks:

Deceptive Phishing: Mass emails that impersonate a well-known company.
Spear Phishing: Personalized phishing attacks targeting specific individuals or organizations.
Whaling: A phishing attack aimed at high-profile individuals like executives or CEOs.
Clone Phishing: A real email is copied, slightly modified, and resent with a malicious link.

Phishing is particularly dangerous because the messages often look legitimate, and even trained professionals can sometimes fall for them.