Have you been a victim of phishing?
Many words have been added to the English language from the birth of the Internet. Some of these words have been created from the basis of something in existence and others do not seem to be related at all. The resent topic in the Internet world is phishing, a new type of identity theft that is done directly over the Internet without its victims knowing they are being misled. This issue has been a concern of all who are involved. The biggest worry is how can this be prevented?
Definition When you think of the word phishing, without seeing it spelled you think of a boat, a pole and maybe a relaxing time on the lake, but this may be just the opposite. The word phishing when
…show more content…
The email will look like it is a real company sometimes with the same logos as on their websites, which will say something to the effect of ‘we need to update your account information’ or ‘your account has been deactivated, click here to re-activate’. When you do not pay attention to the little details, it is hard to see that the email being sent to you is not from the company stated. David Jevans of the Anti-Phishing Working Group said, “They are so sophisticated, that even computer security experts sometimes have a hard time telling the real ones from the fake ones.” (Phishing for your Identity) The number of phishing attacks has increased tremendously over the last few years. It has been calculated that over the last year, phishing scams cost online banks over $1.2 billion; this amount was quite an increase from previous years. (The Facts)
History Phishing is a topic that has surfaced recently in news stories but the idea has been around for a while. Most of the time, when phishing emails went out prior to the innovation of copying credible site appearances, it was easy to tell what was a fake email opposed to a true email. Usually, the emails were sent with bad grammar and spelling errors. However, things have gotten more sophisticated with the help of increased technology. (A Brief History) As these phishing schemes become more and more advanced, the number of attacks increases tremendously. The statistics of the number of increases are astonishing,
Cybercrime has experienced significant progress during recent years, as its advance is directly proportional with the advance of technology. In spite of the fact that the authorities devise new and better strategies to fight cybercrime, the fact that the number of people online is constantly increasing means that cybercrimes occur even more frequently. Dishonest people who seek opportunities have discovered how the internet stands as a perfect environment for them to commit crimes by taking as little risks as possible. Computer fraud generates a series of benefits for the person committing it, as he or she can either profit financially from the enterprise or can simply alter files in order for his or her image to be positively affected. Identity theft is a major form of cybercrime and it is essential for society to acknowledge the gravity of the matter in order to be able to effectively fight against criminals using it.
The phishing email itself is also violating a law. This would fall under Title 18 Crimes and Criminal procedure, part 1, chapter 4, § 1028: "Fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information”. While there has been attempts in the past to introduce and pass laws that specifically apply to phishing attempts none of these laws have made it on the books.
As value customers of the Anthem, Inc. we believe it is important to keep each one of you informed of any incident that might affect your business with us. Your privacy and security is our priority for the reason Anthem, Inc. would like to inform our customers of a recent phishing attack. Unfortunately, we have experienced similar attacks in the past which led many of the employees and customers’ data exposed to hackers. Even though this is a serious matter for the company and the customers it is important for us to make our customers aware that phishing attacks are common and they cause huge losses to both the customers and the companies (Wright et al., 2014). Our most recent attack took place on April 2014 and it affected about 80 million identifiable data stolen via phishing emails. The
Phishing is an attempt to acquire personal information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity through an electronic communication. [ Compl. ¶ 28, ECF No. 1.]
Since our sponsor university is located in Massachusetts, where there is no direct single state law on anti-phishing. It is important to understand legal phishing definition, and laws applicable if University XYZ faces any phishing attack. In this section, apart from explaining federal statute and related punishment for phishing attack, details are given on government agencies that University XYZ can approach for phishing attack investigation.
The internet has brought upon a new revolution of global interconnection where contacting someone on the other side of the world is just a click away, but with this international phenomenon comes an increased susceptibility with unfamiliar technology. Internet crime is compiled of all non-physical crime with the aid of a computer. Although broad in definition internet crimes are largely composed of acts such as cyber fraud, ‘phishing’ (username and password hacking), cyber stalking and hacking. Internet crime does not pose an overwhelming issue in society in terms of its
This paper will cover the topic of identity theft via the internet, phone and several other schemes. It will identify various ways in which your identity is stolen and ways which you can safeguard yourself from being victimized. I will also report what the Department of Justice is doing and the penalties associated with these crimes.
Bank of America is a multinational banking institute and one of the most trusted in the banking industry. This organizations sole purpose is to protect the customer’s confidentiality and assets by ensuring that data protection is the number one priority; however any organization when holding personal information can be a victim of data breach and BoA is not exempt. One of the largest risks BoA faces today is Mobile Banking. This consumer convenience is used by fifty percent of smart phone owners (Finney, 2014). Phishing is also threat to the banking industry; this strategy by hackers allows the extraction of consumer passwords and other sensitive information. Hackers targeting banking institution employees with convincing e-mails that fool them into clicking on malicious links-which ultimately compromise their credentials or
Many users are subject of Security and Privacy on the Internet issue. The term "information" now is more used when defining a special product or article of trade which could be bought, sold, exchanged, etc. Often the price of information is higher many times than the cost of the very computers and technologies where it is functioning. Naturally it raises the need of protecting information from unauthorized access, theft, destruction, and other crimes. However, many users do not realize that they risk their security and privacy online.
The agencies employed by governments to police the web in order to protect the vulnerable have seen an increase in child pornography and online fraud. The speed at which information can be distributed and the number of people that can be reached attracts those that are intent on causing harm. The term “cybercrime” is becoming more widely used. The financial gains that can be made and the anonymity the internet can provide, make the virtual world of cyberspace a haven for criminals. Although the internet has huge benefits for information gathering and social networking, in the wrong hands it can cause harm to the vulnerable and criminals are able to vanish into the underground with the use of false identities that are hard to track online.
The sheer availability of information and the ease of access to such information to even the most novice computer user is helping fuel the growth of this type of cybercrime. There are some ways to protect ourselves and our families.
The increasing volume and sophistication of cyber security threats including targeted data theft, phishing scams and other online vulnerabilities demand that we remain vigilant about securing our systems and information.
How do you secure your identity with the Internet developing faster than can be protected? Attempting to stay ahead of the hackers and attackers has been a contentious effort since the Internet’s earliest days as a research project. Today, after thirty years of prolific development, security concerns have only increased. Designing computer systems and devices which are capable of resisting attack from within, while growing and evolving at an epidemic rate is almost an impossible endeavor. Today, identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing white collar crime and preys upon the financial resources and reputations of its victims to include children and deceased. In many
Phishing is a serious problem in the progressively limitless service of the internet. There are many ways to trick the people to disclose the information by using social engineering attack. It can take form of spam email, fake
This report gathers information and wide understanding of what phishing attack is all about. Phishing is an attack to obtain personal and sensitive information of a particular person from a computer. A thorough understanding of this kind of attack in a computer is of much importance especially to IT Managers. It will give them wide understanding upon developing an Information System Strategic Plan for a company they are working for in gaining competitive advantage in the industry. Developing ISSP falls under Project Planning Phase of an IT Managers which has an important part, the Data Protection of a company. This study was conducted to help IT Managers analyzed the consequences of various phishing attacks and techniques to further improve their understanding. It can also help them to avoid this kind of attacks that can destroy company’s data.