Phishing, smishing

Just had an email from a reliable and trusted contact to notify me of an alert they received from a third party pointing out that phishing attacks are on the rise. Trouble is, the email they sent with a copy of the original alert is full of links offering advice on how to stay secure and specifically how to avoid being phished…
In case you don’t already know, phishing is a scam (smishing is SMS phishing) whereby a malicious third-party hooks you in and gets you to click a link in an email that inevitably leads to the installation of malware on your device or tricks you into entering private and/or personal data on a remote website, often disguised as your bank or an e-commerce site.
The bottom line is you should NEVER click a link in an email or indeed any other kind of message you receive regardless of what it suggests that you do.
If you must visit a site mentioned in such a missive, because you think it really is legitimate, then have a look at the source of the message you received to see if the link really goes to the website of the trusted source or if it’s a decoy for a malware site. You could also then copy the actual link into an online malware scanner, such as VirusTotal, to double-check that it’s safe. Do that in an incognito tab in your browser and make sure you’re not logged into any sites in that browser window when you do.
Also, watch out for phishing hooks in your online calendar on dodgy websites and also watch out for websites t...

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - December 6, 2022 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Technology Source Type: blogs