Kevin McDonald guest writes a blog for Dave Berkus’ Berkonomics
Phishing, a play on the word “fishing,” is a dangerous form of executive or CEO email fraud, and is negatively impacting individuals and companies worldwide. You certainly have seen some form of this social engineering – where criminals pretend to be an organization or individual such as the IRS, a creditor, partner, CEO/CFO or other key executive.
The goal is to “phish” a person into taking actions they shouldn’t. An attack may involve a call demanding payment to the phisher for past due invoices from a legitimate supplier, or verification of credit card data to create facilitate the fraudulent transaction. Phishing can hook you through infected emails – or links to a fake website containing malware – or information capturing forms you are asked to complete.
Many websites are compromised and have been hacked with or set up with embedded nefarious software. A successful attack can lead to you or one of your associates providing highly sensitive personal details of self, customers or employees – including social security numbers, usernames, passwords, and/or banking information. Phishing victims have been known to transfer large sums of money as a result of appeals, threats, or claims.
Some attacks are rudimentary, but… To read the rest of this story, please click here to go to BERKONOMICS.COM
