Phishing. Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
We’ve all heard about it and sadly some of us fall for it every day. Well, there is a new way in which phishing is being used. For the most part phishing works in a random way. They send out a lot of posts and hope someone responds. Now they are targeting specific people and specific groups in an attempt to damage them.
In a somewhat humorous gesture, the computer geeks call this new method spearphishing and they are targeting internet freedom groups. The phishermen are incredibly persistent and clever, changing tactics and being creative in their tactics.
Clickbait is one of the more popular phishing methods and the headlines are tailored to what they believe you might be interested in. Political headlines that will please the left or the right are popular. If they think you hate Trump, you might see something like, “Porn star Jessica Drake claims Donald Trump offered her $10G, use of his private jet for sex,” If you love sensationalism, you might get, “Reality show mom wants to hire a hooker for her autistic son.”
So far, it’s not that difficult to prevent. The lesson here is that hackers are using their techniques to target specific groups and ideas. Learn and use readily available security measures as spelled out in this article. Read more here.