The recent problems faced by a number of high profile Twitter users has highlighted again the susceptibility of many users to so called ‘phishing’ attacks.
Could this happen to you? If you are not in the habit of being vigilant in the way that you deal with login details and passwords online, then it is well within the bounds of possibility.
Phishing attacks often work by attempting to get the user to enter their details into a fake website. This site will have been crafted to closely resemble a commonly used site.
How can you defend yourself from phishing attacks? The first way is to keep your login details private, never give them out to a third party. Secondly, be careful about the links you follow. By this I mean if you receive a link to Twitter (or any site really) via an instant messaging client or email then it can be considered good practice to treat it with caution. Is that message / email really from the company you think it is? If you can’t easily check the actual URL you are about to follow then play it safe – follow a link you know is safe or type the address in manually.
Losing your Twitter login details could lead to embarrassing posts appearing with your name attached, but this is a small issue compared to the potential of losing other login information for – say – online banking.
If in doubt, play it safe. Careful where you click.
Tweet safe everyone.
..More information can be found on Gragam Cluley’s blog from security company Sophos, and on the Twitter help pages. Also check Wikipedia’s page on phishing.
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