What is Phishing and how to protect yourself?

What is Phishing?

This is the most common, and the easiest, form of identity theft on the Internet through a fake website. So, the attacker created a fake page that is identical to the real one and tricks you into logging in with your data. You believe in it, enter your data, click on "Login" and - PAF! You have just sent your data to a remote server from which the hacker can read it.

How is this fake page transmitted?

Email used to be more common, but today social networks dominate. When a hacker creates that fake page, he posts it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. but comes up with a good plan that will get users to visit and log in. Most often, these are the inscriptions: "Latest smilies for FB, see the link", or "A million poker chips"... and the like. It is also possible to develop a script that, if activated, sends a phishing page to each of your friends without you even knowing it.

You still need to pay attention to the email. Here, too, they are cunning, so they send you an email where they put a Facebook template and tell you to log in to your account to activate your account. Or they will send you an email stating that you have received a notification and that you must click on the link provided to read it.

How to protect yourself from phishing?

The safest way is to be careful and look at the URL of the site before each login to your account. Hackers usually host their fake sites on free hosts and use free domains, most commonly using  .tk and .co.cc. Also, check that the URL is preceded by HTTPS and who the licensee is. And first of all, check the domain! You know what the original domain reads and you can compare it to a fake one. Be careful with Unicode domains as well - more on that.

You can read what HTTPS is and how to activate it at this link.

Most Antiviruses have a web shield that will prevent pages that are suspected to be fake or contain malware and viruses. Therefore, update the virus database in your AV regularly.

Watch which links you click! If you find the link suspicious, don't click on it. Facebook is full of such links.

I would also recommend this add-on for Chrome, which will increase the protection of that web browser - Windows Defender.