How do the bad guys get your personal information?

What term best describes the fraudulent gathering of sensitive information through look-alike web pages?

A) Phishing

B) Adware

C) Spam

D) Trojan

The answer: A) Phishing

The bad guys have gotten very good at creating web pages that look exactly like your bank web site, and unfortunately they have gotten really good at tricking people into typing in their personal information.

The incorrect answers:

B) Adware
Adware is malicious code that sneaks onto your computer for the purpose of showing advertising.

C) Spam
Spam has many definitions, but it’s always delivered through email and it’s almost always unwanted. Fortunately, spam isn’t necessarily responsible for sending private information to the bad guys.

D) Trojan
A Trojan is a program that pretends to be one thing but is actually something else (usually something more sinister). This often arrives as an attachment in spam and is usually has a filename that looks fun or interesting.

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.