Phishing
The word phishing comes from fishing, referring to how users are fished as baits by increasingly sophisticated methods in order to obtain financial or password information. Individuals that carry this out are known as phishers.
Phishing is a term used in the field of informatics that refers to a type of crime associated to fraud. This fraudulent process is committed through social engineering techniques in which an individual tries to acquire confidential information by means of fraudulent schemes or actions, especially regarding passwords or detailed information on credit cards or other banking information.
The swindler or “phisher” adopts the identity of a trusted person or company in an allegedly official electronic communication, typically an email, or other instant messaging system or even through telephone contact.
Given the increasing number of accusations related to phishing incidents, additional methods for protection are imperative.
Methods to fight these fraudulent schemes include enforcing pertaining laws, public awareness campaigns among users and technical updates on programs.
Most recent phishing targets are bank customers and online payment services.
In this sense, digital signatures guarantee source authentication, providing reliability to email recipients of the source of delivered communications, thereby avoiding phishing.