* By Roberto Gallo
• Spyware: Collects information from the victim's browsing history;
• Trojans: Allusion to the Trojan horse built by the Greeks, attracts the victim by offering a bait, but hides a malicious action;
• Rootkit: Ensures administrative access to the attacker, enabling any action to be performed remotely;
• Worms: They replicate throughout the network, executing several different attacks and infecting as many machines as possible;
• Phishing: It seeks to deceive a victim with the intention of obtaining their personal information, such as passwords, credit card details and other documents.
According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Brazil had a 232% increase in security incidents related to phishing¹ in 2019, with its peak in November, caused mainly by two factors: the end-of-year shopping period, also associated with Black Friday, and year-end income increases, such as the thirteenth, for example.
Phishing emails often catch the victim's attention through specific and worrying subjects, along with a convincing email address, such as "empresa_suport@gmail.com", for example. The technique provides credibility to the subject, in addition to having a format similar or even identical to that of the personified company, inducing the user to trust the authenticity of the document.
Good customs can free you from a lot of trouble when it comes to accessing the internet. Look for: (i) changing your privacy settings to be more restrictive, (ii) not accessing applications that require authentication on a public network, (iii) keeping the browser up to date, and (iv) remembering to use two-factor authentication on social networks and in the application to access your credit card. E-mails that arouse curiosity or ask for personal information, such as credit card details, should be blocked and deleted. No financial institution asks for customer information by email. You should also be wary of login pages hosted on unknown domains, in addition to miraculous promotions that offer a price well below the market.
¹Source: http://docs.apwg.org/reports/apwg_trends_report_q4_2019.pdf
* Roberto Gallo is an Advisor to ABES - ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies, founding CEO of Kryptus, President of ABIMDE - Brazilian Association of Defense and Security Materials Industries and Director of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo - FIESP.