Phishing Attacks are at an All Time High, Here's How to Protect Yourself

Wire

Phishing Attacks are at an All Time High, Here’s How to Protect Yourself

In 2016, record-breaking amounts of phishing attacks were reported, with targeted phishing and targeted phishing on high-profile individuals being the most common forms. It involves tricking internet users into entering their information – often through fake or imitation websites.

This year alone, GoDaddy, PayPal, Dropbox, American Express and Yahoo users were all victims of Phishing.

Here are some tips from Avast on how to prevent phishing:

Have good habits and don’t respond to links in unsolicited emails or on Facebook.
Don’t open attachments from unsolicited emails.
Protect your passwords and don’t reveal them to anyone.
Don’t give sensitive information to anyone—on the phone, in person, or through email.
Look at a website’s URL (web address). In many phishing cases, the web address may look legitimate, but the URL may be misspelt or the domain may be different (.com when it should be .gov).
Keep your browser up to date and apply security patches.