The word “pharming” is born from the union of phishing and farming -cultivation- and refers to a cyber scam in which website traffic is manipulated and confidential information is stolen.
It is a type of scam in which the victim does not need to do anything to fall for the attack, which is a clear advantage for criminals. Keep reading to learn more about what it is and some tips to protect yourself from this fraud.
What is pharming
This is a cyber attack similar to phishing in which malicious code is used to change IP address information, making Internet users who want to access a specific website redirected to a different website and, of course, false.
On these fake sites, what criminals do is ask users to enter their personal data with the purpose of capturing your personally identifiable information and credentials, such as passwords or account numbers, for example. They can also do this to install malware on your device.
Normally, the financial sector such as banks or e-commerce sites where monetary exchanges occur are usually the target of criminals who are dedicated to carrying out this scam.
One of the advantages they have with pharming is that they do not need to convince victims to open a link in their email or in a fake advertisement, but the malicious code is simply downloaded to the computer without the victim doing anything.
Difference between phishing and pharming
If you’re wondering how it’s different from phishing, what you should know is that phishing is a type of scam in which personal information is acquired through fake emails designed to look legitimate. The goal is to get victims to think they are real messages and click on a link in a fraudulent email.
On the other hand, pharming consists of creating fake websites that steal sensitive information without users doing anything, they are simply redirected to malicious sites without even knowing it.
Tips to protect yourself from a pharming attack
Although many pharming attacks are almost unpredictable, you can take into account some recommendations to be alert:
-Make sure that the Site URL that visits is written correctly. It is common for letters or symbols in the URL to change.
-Make sure the website has no very visible errors such as misspellings, modified logos, colors that you don’t recognize…
-Check that your connection is secure. A very simple first step is to see if the site is using “https”. If you use “http” the connection is probably not secure.
-Activate a antivirus program powerful. The best thing to protect yourself is to use a reliable antivirus that acts against this type of scam.
