No, we are not talking about going on a fishing charter in the Florida Keys; we are focusing on a Cyber Security phenomenon that is “Today’s New Normal,” and no, we are not talking about the COVID-19 term; this is a Cyber Security Term that is defined as:
phishing
Definition of phishing
: a scam by which an Internet user is duped (as by a deceptive e-mail message) into revealing personal or confidential information, which the scammer can use illicitly.
Did You Know?
Phishing is one of the many new computer-related terms that have entered the general lexicon over the past decade. Its “ph” spelling is influenced by an earlier word for an illicit act: “phreaking.”
Phreaking involves fraudulently using an electronic device to avoid paying for telephone calls, and its name is suspected of being a shortening of “phone freak.”
A common phishing scam involves sending e-mails that appear to come from banks requesting recipients to verify their accounts by typing personal details, such as credit card information, into a Web site that has been disguised to look like the real thing. Such scams can be thought of as “fishing” for naive recipients.
Examples of phishing in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Local election offices remain susceptible to email phishing attempts and website hacks that could penetrate state voter registration databases and other critical systems.— Anchorage Daily News, “Election experts warn of November disaster,” 11 July 2020
Hackers for hire, a particularly ignominious phishing campaign, and more of the week’s top security news.— Brian Barrett, Wired, “Security News This Week: Zoom Shut Down US-Based Activists at China’s Request,” 13 June 2020
(“Phishing | Definition Of Phishing By Merriam-Webster”, N.D.).
If you do not recognize the sender or person’s email address origin that you normally communicate with, you should not open any links and be careful. Just because it looks non-discrete and harmless enough, do not open it. Call the sender of the unexpected email attachment and validate that they intended to send such communications before you open the email. Always keep your Antivirus up-to-date and run regular scans. ZP Enterprises can help clean up a virus infection if you are infected.
