Phishing is a type of cyber attack, a series of attacks by maliciously motivated attackers masquerading as reputable businesses to deceive people and collect sensitive information such as their credit card details, usernames or passwords Behavior. Because phishing involves psychological manipulation and relies on human error (rather than hardware or software vulnerabilities), it is considered a social engineering attack.

Typically, phishing attacks use fraudulent emails to trick users into entering sensitive information into a fraudulent website. These emails often lead users to a fake website that looks very similar to the original website by asking them to reset their password or confirm their credit card information. The main types of phishing are copy phishing, spear phishing, and pharming.

Phishing attacks also exist in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, where malicious actors attempt to steal Bitcoin or other digital currencies from users. For example, an attacker could fake a website and change the wallet address to his own, thus making users think they are paying for a legitimate service, when in fact, the attacker is stealing their property.  

What are the types of phishing?

Phishing is often divided into many different types based on target and attack vector. Here we give some common examples.

• Copy phishing: The attacker uses a legitimate email that has been sent to copy a similar email containing a link to a malicious website. After the email is sent, the attacker can claim that this is an updated or brand new link and that the old link has expired.

• Spear phishing: This type of attack focuses on one person or organization - usually a well-known one. Spearphishing attacks are more complex than other types of phishing due to the need to disguise one's identity. The attacker first collects information about the victim (for example, the name of a friend or family member) and then constructs a message based on this data, primarily directing the victim to visit a malicious website or download a malicious file.

• Domain spoofing: Attackers will destroy DNS records and lead visitors to legitimate websites to fraudulent websites pre-deployed by the attacker. This is the most dangerous attack of the above types and there is nothing the user can protect against since DNS records are not within the user’s control.

• Whale fishing: a fish that targets wealthy and important people - such as CEOs and government officials - Spear phishing.

• Email spoofing: Emails used for phishing often forge communications from legitimate companies or people. Such emails provide the unsuspecting victim with a link to a malicious website, which allows the attacker to collect login information and PII by using a cleverly disguised login page. These pages may contain Trojan horses, keyloggers, and other malicious scripts that steal personal information.

• Website jump: Website jump directs users to a URL different from the original URL. An attacker who exploits a website vulnerability will plant a redirect (function) and install malware onto the user's computer.

• Registering similar domain names: The phishing method of registering similar domain names is to direct traffic to websites that use foreign languages, have common spelling errors, or use A fake website with a slightly altered top-level domain name. Phishers use domains to mimic the interface of legitimate websites, thereby tricking users who mistype or misread the URL.

• “Waterhole”: In a watering hole attack, the phisher first analyzes the user and finds out what they usually do Visited websites, then scan these websites to check for vulnerabilities and, if possible, implant designed malicious scripts for the next visit.

• Impersonation and Freebies: Impersonating a social media influencer is another phishing tactic. Phishers will impersonate key leaders at a company and target their audience with promotional giveaways or other scams. (Phishers) can even individually target victims of this scam by finding gullible users through social engineering. "Actors" can crack authenticated users (login information) and change their usernames to impersonate real people while maintaining good authentication status. Victims are more likely to interact with seemingly influential figures and provide PII, creating opportunities for phishers to exploit their information.

  Recently, phishers have focused on platforms such as Slack, Discord and Telegram for the same purpose, using methods such as chat deception, impersonating others, and pretending to be legitimate services. Phishing attacks.

• Advertising: Paid advertising is another tactic used in phishing. These (fake) ads use "registered domain names" and pay to have them pushed to search results. These sites may even be popular search results for legitimate companies or services such as Binance. They are often used as a means of phishing to obtain sensitive information, which may include login details for your trading account.

• Malicious apps: Phishers may also use malicious apps as a vector to plant malware to monitor your behavior or steal sensitive information. They may disguise their applications as price tracking software, wallets, and other cryptocurrency-related tools (there is already a user base that tends to trade and hold cryptocurrencies).

• SMS and voice phishing: SMS phishing, a form of phishing based on text messages, and voice phishing, which is based on voice or phone calls, etc. An effective form of phishing is another way for attackers to attempt to obtain personal information.

Phishing and pharming

Although some people Think of pharming as a phishing attack, but one that relies on a different mechanism. The main difference between phishing and pharming is that in phishing attacks. The victim must commit the wrongful act themselves, whereas pharming only requires the victim to attempt to access a legitimate website whose DNS records have been successfully compromised by the attacker.

How to prevent phishing?

• Be vigilant: The best defense against phishing is to judge and review incoming emails. Should you have received an email from the sender on this topic? Do you suspect that this person is asking you for information that has nothing to do with his business? If you have any questions above, please try to contact the sender through other means.

• Check the content: You can enter part of the content (or the sender's email address) into a search engine to check if There are records of phishing attacks using this method.

• Try other methods: If you think you have received a legitimate request to confirm account information for a familiar business, try a different method Do this without clicking on the link in the email.

• Check the URL: Move the mouse over the link without clicking, and check if the link starts with HTTPS instead of HTTP. But please note that simply checking the beginning does not guarantee that the website is reliable. Check the URL carefully for spelling errors, special characters, and other unusual features.

• Don’t share your private keys: Never give your Bitcoin wallet private keys to others and be wary of judging you Are the products and sellers of any cryptocurrency you are given legal? The difference in dealing with encryption compared to a credit card is that the government won't dispute the charge if you never receive the goods or services agreed upon. This is why special care must be taken when dealing with cryptocurrency transactions.

Conclusion

Phishing is the most widespread and common cyber attack One of the technologies. While email filtering software from major services can effectively filter out fake messages and leave behind real emails, care needs to be taken to maintain this last line of defense. Be wary of any attempts to obtain sensitive or private information from you. If possible, verify information through channels where the sender and request are legitimate. Avoid clicking on links in emails about security incidents and work your way to the page, also paying attention to whether the HTTPS at the beginning of the URL is correct. Finally, be especially careful with cryptocurrency transactions as there is no way to reverse these transactions without the merchant holding on to the end of the transaction. Always keep your private keys and passwords private, and never trust any information.