subject: Ensure Phishing Protection With Anti Phishing Software [print this page] With life becoming increasingly digitized, people spend a great amount of their time online. Be it personal or professional life, online presence is essentially necessary to get things done. However, the increased online presence has provided criminals with immense opportunities to deceive people. One such method is that of phishing where the phishers use social engineering techniques to trick people into divulging their personal and confidential information. Social engineers count on the natural helpfulness of people as well as on their weaknesses to make them break normal security procedures.
Though the term Phishing basically means account theft through instant messaging, to date, the most successful phishing attacks have been initiated by email. It usually uses hoax emails claiming to be from legitimate businesses to lead the recipients to counterfeit websites. These sites are designed to trick individuals into disclosing sensitive data including usernames and passwords. What makes phishing emails successful is because all the mails contain a call of action and warn of dire consequences if the recipient fail to perform as directed. Here is a look at some of the examples of the call of action.
* A warning that unauthorized changes has been made to a users account with a link to modify the unauthorized change.
* A statement that claims to be from an established organization informing the recipient about a problem incurred during account verification with a link to a bogus website where the recipient need to submit personal and confidential information.
* A statement that entices the recipient to enroll in an anti-fraud program for free so as to protect the account from phishing attacks.
* A fabricated invoice informing the recipient of the merchandise ordered with a link to cancel the order.
* A false announcement that informs the recipient of a new service rolled out by a financial institution with a link to a website to get the service for free.
Though enterprises deploy products and services that address the "process and technology" aspect of security, it is not enough to protect their most valuable assets -- their employees. This is because it is the people and not the technology that have a significant role to play. Only through phishing awareness that people can avoid becoming phish bait in the future. Hence, what is required is a phishing diagnostic solution that proactively educates users and helps them identify phishing attacks. This anti-phishing software simulates a phishing attack and captures user's potential reaction to a real attack. Moreover, it leverages the teaching moment created based on the user's response and generates an action plan that can be implemented to avoid future pitfalls.
