Data theft: what is phishing and how to prevent it?

MadeinWeb

Ever heard of phishing? Cybercrime is more common than your business might realize. All this happens through techniques that use fraud, tricks, or any other type of deception in order to influence or manipulate society to obtain personal information, data considered confidential.

Below, check out which topics we will cover in this article:

• How important is your data?
• What is phishing?
• Companies that have been phishing scammed
• What are the means used to steal the data?
• How to prevent phishing?

How important is your company data?

Why is data so important today? Not only today but for a long time, personal information is being targeted by criminals spread all over the world.

Regardless of your company’s model, which can range from small, medium to large, data is confidential, and protecting it is essential for decision-making. After all, the confidentiality of information guarantees the success of the institution.

However, when the company suffers from cyber attacks, in addition to becoming more vulnerable, this action can lead to the loss or theft of data related to finances and legal issues, not to mention the information of third parties, such as customers and employees.

Data can be hacked and attacked in countless ways. Therefore, betting on safe techniques and actions is always an excellent option.

What is phishing?

From the English term, the word phishing was defined due to its great similarity to the word fishing, which has the meaning of fishing. This idea brings the practice of “fishing”, whose purpose of these criminals is to fish users’ personal information and data through attractive materials considered false.

Unlike spam, being junk mail with numerous unwanted ads, phishing is one of the scams that has been happening for many years and is well known by internet users.

Therefore, we can define any malicious activity that occurs through cybercriminals, whose objective is to apply scams through telecommunication to obtain the victims’ confidential data, which may be a company or an individual.

Company and users become phishing bait through email, phone, or SMS text messages. At first glance, in order to appear real, this contact does not appear to be at all dangerous, as the criminal adopts genuine communication techniques, whose objective is to attract and induce action upfront.

Gradually, this user passes all his information to the thief, from passwords, credit card numbers, bank details to others that may be considered confidential. From this, after sharing, they are violated and suffer from the crime of false identity.

Companies that have been phishing scammed

As we mentioned earlier, phishing is much more common than you might think. Recently, according to a report on UOL’s Tilt website , the Hariespress platform, which serves Brazilian companies such as Americanas, Amazon, and Correios, exposed more than 1 billion personal and confidential data of its users.

In addition to these companies, in 2020, some private universities in São Paulo were targets of hacker attacks, according to a report by the link, newspaper Estadão. Students reported criminal and malicious attacks to their educational institutions, having their personal data leaked (passwords, contacts, photos, among others), which were exposed for at least six months on the internet, and could be accessed by countless people.

According to a survey carried out by the digital security company Axur, passwords linked to emails with the ending “gov.br” unfortunately had their information leaked in 2021, according to a report by G1 Notícias.

That is, this means that numerous government emails were exposed, which does not mean that these incidents happened in government systems, but in private companies that have stored these accounts and had their access violated by phishing.

What are the means used to steal the data?

Phishing crimes occur through media and communication resources. Below, check out the main means used by criminals:

1. Vishing;
2. Smishing;
3. Phishing on websites;
4. Email phishing;
5. Phishing on social networks.

1. Vishing

It comes from the abbreviation of “voice phishing”. Yes, criminals use an audio version via the internet, whose objective is to convince potential victims to disclose their personal data so that it can be used in the future to usurp identities. A very common example is those automated call attempts. Watch out!

2. Smishing

Also known as SMS crime (Short Message Service, which means short message service), the user receives an attractive text message on his cell phone with a link to click on or download a particular app.

By doing this, malware (malicious software: program harmful to systems) is automatically installed on the device, whose purpose is to capture all the confidential information contained in it and send it to the criminal.

3. Phishing on websites

Known as fake or fake websites, they are identical to real pages, often known and trusted by many people.

From this, hackers develop the programming of these sites so that the user can register and then use this information to access real accounts. Another element that is very present in phishing is the famous pop-ups.

4. Email Phishing

Of all the methods used by phishing criminals, email phishing is the most common among these cyber crooks as users are considered easy prey.

Through the e-mail address, criminals use this tool to place the initial bait, usually, they are messages with links that take the person to pornographic sites or attachments with malware. Therefore, it is recommended not to click on shortcuts from unknown senders.

5. Phishing on social networks

Finally, social media. Attackers access accounts and, through a virus, force people on that network to send links. Another very common action is fake profiles, which send messages via direct with shortcuts to malicious websites.

How to prevent it?

In addition to being careful with the situations we mentioned earlier, it is important to have internet security software. The goal is to reduce the exposure of your company’s data, customers, and employees. Therefore, adopting Cyber Security actions in your company is an excellent option!

Through Cyber Security, it is possible to establish new guidelines, principles, and actions in order to protect all your commercial resources and personal and strategic data.