What is the difference between hacking and phishing?

What is hacking?

Hacking is the act of breaking into a digital device with malicious intent to steal and compromise the owner's sensitive information. Hackers can intrude on personal computers, smartphones, or even an entire network to satisfy their malevolent purposes.

Digital security is compromised when access to a computer or a network is unauthorized. Hackers find such loopholes to break through the system.

Hackers can have different purposes for breaking into a system. They are categorized into three categories:

• Black hat
• White hat
• Gray hat

Black hat hackers

Black hat hackers illegally intrude into a system with malicious purposes to compromise the victim's personal information. They gain access to personal data, such as the user's name, email, or even your banking details, and use it against you.

Breach of personal information can lead to identity theft. In addition, access to financial information can have devastating effects on the victim.

White hat hackers

White hat hackers legally hack into a system with permission to do so. Such people are specially hired to find loopholes in the system security to prevent data breaches by the black hat hackers. They help in making the system more secure.

Gray hat hackers

Gray hat hackers illegally break into a system just like black hat hackers. However, they do not perform this act for evil purposes. Such hackers gain access to your personal information but do not use it for malicious purposes.

What is phishing?

Phishing is the act of gaining access to a user's personal information by means of an authentic-looking offer. Legitimate-looking emails are sent to users to trick them and gain access to their personal information.

Such emails mimic a huge organization, bank, or trusted authority to convince users to provide their sensitive information. Links or attachments are used to gain access to the user's personal information.

These emails are usually marked as urgent and sometimes contain lucrative offers for the person, such as winning a prize, which tricks the user into rapidly responding to the email without checking its authenticity.

As a result, users click the link that redirects them to a bogus website, and the attacker gains all the information they require. Otherwise, when the attachments are downloaded, they install malware on the user's computer to track their activity and gain access to sensitive data.

Numerous phishing techniques exist, such as deceptive, spear, malware, and whaling.

Deceptive phishing

The attacker impersonates an organization and sends out emails or calls users to trick them into providing their data.

Spear phishing

Spear phishing is the same as deceptive phishing; however, emails or calls in this scenario are more targeted. Such emails contain the user's name or information to cater to them personally. This is to build the offer's credibility so more users fall prey to it.

Malware attacks

The attacker sends out an email to the user that contains a virus in it. As soon as the user clicks on the link, or downloads the attachment, the malware is installed on their devices. Sensitive data is collected and passed to the attacker.

Whaling

Whaling is when high-ranked employees of an organization are targeted and tricked into providing their personal information. Such emails trick the users by requiring immediate action and representing a well-known organization or a government agency to establish authenticity.

Comparison

Hacking and phishing both have similar goals, to gain access to the user's sensitive data. However, the methods of performing the acts are different. Hacking is an illegal way to break into a user's system and gain access to their data involuntarily.

On the other hand, phishing involves gaining access to the user's data by a voluntary act. The user gets tricked into giving out the information, but it is a voluntary act performed by the user.

Phishing can be a part of the hacking process, where the attacker gains access to the user's primary data through a link or installing malware on their device. The accessed information can then be used to break through the system and take over it completely.

Prevention

Several tips can be followed to stay safe on the internet.

• Download an anti-malware protection software that regularly checks for viruses and protects your devices against them.
• When downloading an application or an attachment from the internet, ensure the website is authentic.
• Make sure the websites you browse and provide your information to are secured. Check for the sign of a padlock in the URL bar on the lefthand side, or make sure the website follows HTTPS protocol.
• Browse the internet carefully. Make sure the spellings in the URL are correct. In addition, when you receive an email, ensure the sender's email address has the correct spelling.
• Be aware when you are providing your data through calls or emails. Organizations do not ask for sensitive data using these channels.
• Use multifactor authentication on all your accounts to make them extra secure.
• Make use of different complex passwords for different accounts. Change them regularly for extra added security.