History of Phishing
In the early to mid-1990s, the only available Internet option was ‘dial-up’ access, which cost money. For those who were afraid to pay for Internet access, there was a thirty-party free trial to connect to the Internet using an AOL floppy disc. Rather than living without the Internet once the trial passed, several people discovered a way to modify their screen identities to appear to be AOL administrators. Using these fake screen names, they would “phish” for log-in information to continue using the World Wide Web for free. The number of phishing attacks grew rapidly because internet banking and e-commerce also developed. On the other hand, the phishing led to the evolution of preventive strategies like anti-phishing software applications, email filters, and education on phishing scams through training sessions during the mid-2000s. In the early 2000s, few individuals were familiar with phishing. It was not widely known that scammers pretended to be trustworthy authorities in order to win a jackpot. During this time, phishers began to target online payment platform such as PayPal and E-gold. For example, criminals sent an email to a large number of Paypal users, instructing them to update their credit card information, but instead stole their information.
Phishing in Ethical Hacking
Phishing is one type of cyber attack.It is an unethical way to dupe the user or victim to click on harmful sites. The attacker crafts the harmful site in such a way that the victim feels it to be an authentic site, thus falling prey to it. The most common mode of phishing is by sending spam emails that appear to be authentic and thus, taking away all credentials from the victim. The main motive of the attacker behind phishing is to gain confidential information.