{"id":5761,"date":"2020-05-22T12:12:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/?p=5761"},"modified":"2021-11-24T12:58:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T12:58:56","slug":"dont-take-the-bait-tips-for-avoiding-a-phishing-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersmart.com\/blog\/dont-take-the-bait-tips-for-avoiding-a-phishing-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t take the bait: tips for avoiding a phishing attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
We\u2019ve all gotten those emails before. <\/span>Congratulations! You\u2019ve won a \u00a3100,000 voucher from Argos. Click here in the next three hours to claim your reward!\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>We want to believe them. They just might be real. And that is exactly the mentality cybercriminals are taking advantage of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These kinds of scam emails are known as phishing attacks- and they are everywhere. According to <\/span>Verizon\u2019s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report<\/span><\/a> released this week, they made up nearly a quarter (22%) of all cyber breaches this year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We’ve seen an even greater rise in these over the past three months as hackers preyed on widespread anxiety by impersonating official sources like the US Center for Disease Control, the World Health Organisation, and various government offices offering ‘updates’ and ‘alerts’ around the virus.<\/p>\n Phishing attacks fall into two broad categories. They are usually trying to persuade you to click on a link that will lead to a spoof site and require you to enter personal data (credit card details, personal or bank information, etc), or to download malware onto your device (either through a link or an attachment).<\/span><\/p>\n