What is Phishing Attack?
Phishing Attack Definition: Phishing is a cybersecurity attack where criminals masquerade as trustworthy entities through fraudulent emails, messages, or websites to deceive victims into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card details, or personal data, or to trick them into downloading malware or visiting compromised websites.
Understanding Phishing Attack
Phishing is a type of social engineering attack where cybercriminals disguise themselves as trustworthy entities to trick victims into revealing sensitive information. These deceptive tactics typically arrive via email, text message, or fake websites that closely mimic legitimate organizations.
The attacker's goal is to manipulate recipients into taking actions that compromise their security—clicking malicious links, downloading infected attachments, or directly providing confidential data like passwords, credit card numbers, or personal information. What makes phishing particularly effective is its psychological manipulation, exploiting human tendencies toward trust, urgency, fear, or curiosity.
Common variants include spear phishing (highly targeted attacks using personal details), whaling (targeting executives), vishing (voice phishing via phone calls), smishing (SMS phishing), and business email compromise (impersonating company leaders). The most sophisticated phishing attempts can be remarkably convincing, with carefully crafted messages, professional designs, and domains that appear nearly identical to legitimate sites.
Organizations combat phishing through security awareness training, email filtering technologies, multi-factor authentication, and technical safeguards that identify and block suspicious content before it reaches potential victims.