Security Awareness Training by Abhay Verma

Identity theft is the act of unlawfully obtaining someone’s personal information without the permission. The Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes name, phone number, address, bank account details, Aadhaar and other document numbers, card details and every other information that helps to identify a person is considered as PII. Identity theft is simply stealing these information and using them for illegal activities. Also Read: Social Media Exposing our Personal Data. As per the report on The Economic Times , 4 in 10 Indians have experienced identity theft, and after knowing this we must not overlook the fact that how much dangerous could it be? Identity theft can lead to a number of effects as the stolen information by the criminal can help him/her to personify him/herself as you and can: Gain access to your bank account Apply for loans on your cards or open insurance account File a tax refund in your name and get your refund Obtain a driver’s license, pa...

One of the most widely used technique to perform scam and identity theft is Phishing. Image Source:  idagent.com Phishing is an attack against the end user which focuses on collecting user's personal data or in technical terms Personally Identifiable Information (PII) by tricking a user into providing details or clicking a link to a website, which is definitely a fraudulent website. The very common methods to attempt phishing: 1. The user has won the lottery, or getting some discount offers, so the sender ask for the personal information to transfer amount and will ask user to deposit the little bit sum of money to get the amount. Once the user pays or provides the information, the scam is done. Fig. Source: https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/panda-security/social-media-scams/ 2. Attacker claiming himself/herself to be an organization's employee like a bank employee or employee of any well-known company and send the request to user to click on link which redi...