October is the seventeenth (17th) annual National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the goal is to raise cybersecurity awareness. This blog will give an overview of pharming. Pharming is a malicious hacking attack. There will also be tips on how to identify this scam and avoid becoming a victim.

WHAT IS PHARMING?

Pharming is a type of cyberattack that redirects a website’s traffic to a malicious site that appears to be a real site. Pharming is often frequently used in phishing attacks. It is used to trick people into sharing login or bank information or other sensitive data. 

The reason that this is effective is because a victim who visits the malicious website can see the valid domain name in their browser. The attacker must then trick the victim’s computer. They do this by going to the malicious website by either making changes to the victim’s computer or changing the destination IP address for a domain name. That is typically achieved by altering the victim’s domain name system (DNS) lookup.

HOW DOES PHARMING WORK?

How pharming works is when you enter an address into your web browser, your computer first checks for a valid IP address. If your computer sees an entry in the hosts file for that website it will go to that IP address. But if your computer doesn’t find an entry for that address your browser will ask your computer’s default DNS server to look up the IP address.

HOW TO STAY SAFE FROM PHARMING ATTACKS

Here are a few tips that can help you boost cybersecurity and stay safe.

  • Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever it is available. This way if you do get tricked into sharing your information, the attacker will not be able to login to your real account.
  • Keep your router up to date. If your router doesn’t have automatic updates, consider replacing it with a new one that does.
  • Change the DNS settings on your router and devices to alternate

 

About the Author

Experience Audio Video has been serving Orange County and Area since 1999 for residential and commercial audio, video and security camera  installation services. 5 Star Yelp Ratings, Thousands of Referrals, there is not a better choice than Brian Chappell and the Experience Audio Video Team (License #804783). One phone call and you will know right away the difference in working with Experience Audio Video vs. others in the area. Contact us now at 714-744-4455 or info@eav-inc.com for a Free Consultation.