Lecture

Cybersecurity Threats: Phishing

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture covers the topic of phishing, a common cyber attack method where fraudulent emails are sent to deceive individuals into revealing sensitive information. The instructor discusses real-life examples of phishing scams and provides insights on how to protect against such threats.

Official source

Related concepts (14)

Email spam

Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, is unsolicited messages sent in bulk by email (spamming). The name comes from a Monty Python sketch in which the name of the canned pork product Spam is ubiquitous, unavoidable, and repetitive. Email spam has steadily grown since the early 1990s, and by 2014 was estimated to account for around 90% of total email traffic. Since the expense of the spam is borne mostly by the recipient, it is effectively postage due advertising.

Email spoofing

Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. The term applies to email purporting to be from an address which is not actually the sender's; mail sent in reply to that address may bounce or be delivered to an unrelated party whose identity has been faked. Disposable email address or "masked" email is a different topic, providing a masked email address that is not the user's normal address, which is not disclosed (for example, so that it cannot be harvested), but forwards mail sent to it to the user's real address.

Phishing

Phishing is a form of social engineering and scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim. As of 2020, it is the most common type of cybercrime, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime.

Data Protection Directive

The Data Protection Directive, officially Directive 95/46/EC, enacted in October 1995, was a European Union directive which regulated the processing of personal data within the European Union (EU) and the free movement of such data. The Data Protection Directive was an important component of EU privacy and human rights law. The principles set out in the Data Protection Directive were aimed at the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms in the processing of personal data.

Information privacy

Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data privacy or data protection. Data privacy is challenging since attempts to use data while protecting an individual's privacy preferences and personally identifiable information. The fields of computer security, data security, and information security all design and use software, hardware, and human resources to address this issue.

Related lectures (64)

Cybersecurity Ecosystem: Non-Profit Impact

Explores data breaches in non-profits, incident response plans, legal requirements, cybersecurity strategies, and challenges faced by organizations.

Introduction to Information Security: Threats and Defenses

Explores cybersecurity principles, threats, and defenses, emphasizing the importance of protecting digital information and systems.

Non-Attributable Email: Forward-Forgeable Signatures

Explores non-attributable email using forward-forgeable signatures and the legal risks faced by security researchers.

Data Security and Privacy: Practical Exercises and Concepts

Covers encryption, data protection, and blockchain technology, with hands-on exercises for practical application.

Safe Surfing: Protecting Work and EPFL