There are many more attacks that can take place in the cyberworld. Some can be rather obvious while others are harder to recognize. One such attack that can be easier to recognize is Phishing. Phishing is an internet scam that pushes the user to release sensitive information, this could be in the form of a social security number, credit or debit card number, or password (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019). One common phishing scam is claiming that a bank account is locked and requires a user to click a link to a false website and enter their banking information. These attacks can be utilized to affect large organizations and individuals. There is a lot of damage that can be done utilizing this sort of scam. The main goal of people using phishing scams is to obtain funds. For many organizations a phishing scam can mean direct financial loss, loss of reputation, loss of customers, disruption of operations, and even regulatory fines if there is a data breach (CybSafe, 2023). One recommendation I can make is don’t use links through emails to verify if something is wrong. Go directly to the site using a trusted url to verify information. The second recommendation I can make to prevent falling for phishing attacks is utilize two-factor authentication whenever it is available. These things can help to prevent falling for phishing attacks and keep you and your information safe.
Another very prevalent type of scam is email spam. While many spam emails are filtered out using the spam filters that email systems have built in, it is possible for a few to sneak past the filters. The spam emails themselves may not be able to cause damage but the contents of the email can be harmful to a computer. It is possible for email spam to contain viruses that perform a variety of malicious activities. One such activity could be forwarding the spam email without the consent of the user. To do so a virus is attached to an attachment and once the user opens the attachment the virus is downloaded and will then be sent to others within the mailing list of the user without the user's knowledge of this even happening. There are also many other types of spam that can be utilized to make money. Some such spam types are referrals, porn or gambling sites, and botnets as described above (Vahid & Lysecky, 2019). One recommendation I can make to prevent falling for spam scams is to only open emails from known and trusted sites or organizations. If you are not sure if the organization or site listed can be trusted do some research before opening the email or attachments. The second recommendation I can make is pay close attention to the email address that the email is being sent from. It may look like a trusted or known organization but could be malicious.
Due to these types of attacks and many others that are out there it is important to keep your cybersecurity systems running and up to date. There are many ways to avoid these scams and many like them. It is important to understand how your systems work and prevent any viruses or scam attacks on your system.
References:
CybSafe. (2023, November 9). The ripple effect: How one phishing attack can cause disaster across your organization. CybSafe. https://www.cybsafe.com/blog/how-can-phishing-affect-a-business/
Fortinet. (n.d.) What is a ping of death and ping of death attack? Fortinet. https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/ping-of-death
Hasson, E. (2023, December 20). What is a Ping Flood | ICMP Flood DDoS Attack | Imperva. Learning Center. https://www.imperva.com/learn/ddos/ping-icmp-flood/#:~:text=A%20ping%20flood%2C%20also%20known,users%20from%20accessing%20network%20resources.
Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2019). Computing technology for all. zyBooks.
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