Phishing, Pharming, & Spam

Matthew HardawayCSCI101

Thursday 3:30pm

Fishing (Encyclopedia Britannica):◦ Sport of catching fish—freshwater or saltwater—

typically with rod, line, and hook.

Phishing (Microsoft Help & Support):◦ A technique used to trick computer users into

revealing personal or financial information. A common online phishing scam starts with an e‑mail message that appears to come from a trusted source but actually directs recipients to provide information to a fraudulent website.

Phishing vs. Fishing

Allows others to access account information.

Could allow for unwanted programs or viruses to be planted within your computer.

Dangers of Phishing

If an e-mail looks suspicious, don’t open it! Pay attention to the salutation.

◦ “Dear Client”, “Dear Valued Customer”, “To Whom It May Concern”, Etc.

Check for grammatical errors.◦ Professional businesses know how to spell.

Double-check any links on the e-mail. Banks and other businesses NEVER ask for

personal information to be sent through an e-mail.

Protect Yourself!

Farming (Encyclopedia Britannica):◦ The practice of agriculture.

Pharming (Microsoft Help & Support):◦ When criminal hackers redirect Internet traffic

from one Web site to a different, identical-looking site in order to trick you into entering your user name and password into the database on their fake site.

Pharming vs. Farming

Pharming is a more difficult form of fraud to detect.

Internet criminals create “spoof” sites that are identical to the original site of the company they are pharming. They can even copy the website code.

Pharming is a more professional way of obtaining personal information and account numbers from unsuspecting people.

Dangers of Pharming

If you think that a website is fraudulent, contact the company directly and ask them about the website.

The same safety tips for phishing applies for pharming as well.1. Grammatical errors2. Asking for personal information3. General design of website

Protect Yourself!

SPAM ® (SPAM.com):◦ A canned meat product sold by the Hormel Foods

Corporation.

Spam (Microsoft Help & Support):◦ Unsolicited commercial e‑mail (UCE). Also known

as junk e‑mail.

Spam vs. (…SPAM®?)

174 calories per serving, 137 calories from fat.

Takes up a lot of computer memory. Some Spam contain viruses, trojans, and

worms. Spam programs can add spyware or adware

that track your activities on the computer. To remove spam programs could call for

deleting vital programs from your computer that lower productivity.

Extremely annoying.

Dangers of Spam

Check the sender of the e-mail.◦ If you don’t recognize the sender, don’t open it.

Avoid “special offers” or other “to-good-to-be-true” messages.

Block spam addresses on your e-mail account.

Install spam filter or blocker programs onto your computer (from a trusted company, of course).

Protect Yourself!