Phishing: What Is It? How Do You Protect Yourself From It? Antivirus Software

Phishing is one of the oldest and most effective weapons in the cybercrime arsenal, as it mainly relies on deceiving you as an Internet user to click on a harmful link or attachment, or call a specific number so that the fraudsters then seize your online account, bank account, or lock your computer. Your phone, bombing the screen with ads, stealing your information, or perhaps installing software to spy on you and many other electronic threats that this type of phishing can cause. 

And since you cannot fight something that you do not know or do not understand, so the first step that you must do is to increase your awareness of the form of e-mails that may include an attempt to phish knowing that these messages may reach you through your e-mail, your accounts on social media, or perhaps through an SMS message. 

 an email that appears to be an employee in the organization in which you work or sent by your bank and asks you to confirm your personal email by clicking on a link and then provide login information to your account. This bogus email will appear authentic as fraudsters go to great lengths to make it appear real by imitating the same style, look, and signature of messages sent by the organization or bank. Oftentimes these scams contain requests that you would not expect, which is a strong indication that it is not from a reliable source.

Messages containing links to suspicious websites: Fraudsters usually deceive their victims by pushing them to click on a website link or reply to a message from an email that includes the name of a trusted, reputable party, but if you check that website address or email carefully, You may find a pseudo-variation that cannot be detected without checking. For example, @mail.airbnb.work might look like an official site like @Airbnb.com. @Faceboook.com may look the same as @ facebook.com, didn't you see a difference? Okay, check back again!

No luck that the title of this page, for example, is different from the site Facebook title even though they look identical to the Facebook interface completely official.

Poorly written messages: One of the most obvious ways you can spot phishing emails is their poor language, which often contains spelling and grammatical errors, as well as strange phrases. In real companies, emails are created by professional writers and are checked and corrected for typos, technical and legal errors before they are sent.

Messages that contain a suspicious attachment and/or a false sense of urgency: For example, if you receive an unexpected or unusual email from a friend or co-worker with an attachment in which the language of the message urges you to open it as soon as possible during a certain period, this type is most likely an attempt Phishing. Because links and attachments may contain a malicious URL that may cause malware to be installed on your device or network. For example, the email may claim that your account has been compromised and that the only way to protect your account is to log in and change your username and password. Often times the email will state that your account will be closed if you do not act immediately, creating an intense sense of urgency.

Always be careful of individuals or organizations requesting personal information from you. Because real institutions or companies do not request sensitive data from their customers. And in case of doubt, check with the company itself by contacting it through another means before providing the required data from the company to avoid any potential problems.

Take a close look at the name displayed in the sender field to verify that the email is not spoofed. Most companies use one domain for their URLs and emails, so a message arriving from a different domain is considered a red flag. 

Do not click on links or download files even if they come from sources that appear to be "trustworthy". Rather check them first using virustotal.com, a website that provides free service for checking computer files suspected of being viruses, "Trojan horse" files, or files. Type "worm" or any file that is suspected to be harmful to the system.

Check that the URL matches its content, as malicious links appear when you hover over a different web address, and this is also a red flag as the URL can disguise a specific site address that is familiar to you while taking you to another malicious site by simply clicking on it.

Treat any grammatical or spelling errors in the text of the message that you receive, claiming that it is from a real side, as a red flag indicating a phishing attempt. As mentioned previously, real companies often use correctors and editors to ensure that the materials they send are free of errors.

Calm down when you receive warning-tone messages claiming to be from someone you deal with, and check the real sender first.

Beware of generic emails that don't start with a personal greeting like (Dear X, Dear X), as phishing emails are designed to be sent to a large number of people and have a general subject matter in their content.

Make sure the site you are visiting is secure, such as its URL beginning with "https: //" instead of "HTTP: //" before clicking on it.

Install a good antivirus program on your devices, we recommend  Antivirus Software.

Use Firewall - High-quality firewalls act as barriers between you and your computer and outside intruders. Two different types should be used, the first for desktop protection, which is a program, and the second for network protection, which is a separate device. Using them together greatly reduces the chances of hackers and phishers infiltrating your device or network.

                     

Keep your operating system and browser updated regularly because fraudsters exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems to access your data, so stop ignoring or postponing notifications alerting you to a new update and install it immediately.

Install the Anti-phishing Toolbar on your browser to perform quick checks on the sites you visit and compare them to lists of known phishing sites. If it finds a malicious site, the toolbar will alert you about it. This is just an extra layer of protection against phishing and it's completely free.

Always monitor your accounts on the Internet and your financial data to discover any strange activity, you can monitor your activity in Gmail, for example, by going to Settings - Security, where you see the devices that are logged into your account in addition to the applications that use the account.

Be wary of popups - popups often masquerade as belonging to a known website, but they are more often than not phishing attempts. If a pop-up appears for you from the corner of the screen, do not click on the "Cancel" button; Often these buttons lead to phishing sites. Instead, click the small "x" in the upper corner of the window, and know that the designers of these windows will try to hide this X as much as possible by intentionally minimizing it or enabling it not to appear unless the mouse pointer hovers over it.

                               

We note from the above that most phishing attempts require some type of victim response to achieve success, so focusing on digital awareness about the tactics used by fraudsters and the consequences of certain behaviors that users perform without sufficient awareness becomes critical.