What’s your credit card number?

The theft of personal information is becoming a widespread problem for network security professionals. What’s the most common method for tricking a user into divulging their personal account details?

A) Spam

B) Phishing

C) Social engineering

D) Spyware

E) Sour Apple Martinis

The answer: B) Phishing

Although most of these methods can ultimately be used to steal private data, phishing is the most common method of obtaining this information. A phishing site often appears to look like a legitimate site, but the web pages are actually hosted by the bad guys. With this web page doppelganger in place, it’s easy to fool people into freely giving their username, password, and other personal details.

Want to know more? Watch “Security Fundamentals.” Data security is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. In this module, we’ll examine some of the basic fundamentals of security such as authentication technologies, file system security, and social engineering.