Phishing, Pharming, Malware, And Other Internet Delights

Phishing is a criminal activity which occurs when phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive personal information, such as credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy business in an electronic communication. In some cases, personal details are sought to be obtained for identity theft.

Most methods of phishing use technical deception designed to make a link in an email appear to belong to a legitimate business. Spam and misspelled domain names frequently play a part in such schemes.

Pharming occurs when a hacker attempts to redirect a website's traffic to a bogus website. Pharming has become a major concern to businesses involved in ecommerce and online banking. It too is used to steal identity information.