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  May 6, 2010       |      Volume 4, Issue 5        |        www.sdchamber.org      |       contact us

ESET Tech Tip: Don’t Fall for a Phish

By Randy Abrams, Director of Technical Education, ESET

Phishing attacks are one of the most common ways that cybercriminals obtain access to people’s bank accounts, email accounts and social networking account. Typically, the scenario is that there is a problem with your account and either you need to reply with information, such as your name, password, PIN, social security number, mother’s maiden name, etc., or you are instructed to click on a link and provide some or all of the information.  Many of the emails look very legitimate and it can even be hard for an expert to distinguish between real and fake, however an expert is more likely to call a legitimate email a phishing attack than miss a real phishing attack. For all of you that are not experts, you can avoid phishing attacks by following two simple rules.

Rule #1
You will never get an email from your bank, the IRS, Hotmail, Facebook, or any legitimate organization asking for your password. You should never get a phone call from helpdesk asking for your password or asking you to reset your password to a new one that they provide. These are scams. Just say no to providing your password or  PIN.

Rule #2
Never log into a website from a link in an email or instant message. If you get an email from your bank, from Myspace or Facebook, or some other social networking site and the link takes you to a login screen, don’t log in. Type in www.myspace.com, or whatever site you are using and log in that way. You should be able to find all of the information you need if the email is legitimate. If the email is a scam then you will be a victim if you log in from the link in the email. The same applies to links in instant messages, or tweets on twitter.

Adhere to these two rules, and it is virtually certain you will not fall for a phishing attack.

For general security question, contact Randy Abrams, Director of Technical Education at askeset@eset.com. Or, visit www.eset.com.

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