What Does Pharming Mean?
Pharming refers to redirecting website traffic through hacking, whereby the hacker implements tools that redirect a search to a fake website. Pharming may cause users to find themselves on an illegitimate website without realizing they have been redirected to an impostor site, which may look exactly like the real site. Pharming occurs when hackers locate vulnerabilities in domain name server (DNS) software. Pharming can also occur by rearranging the host’s file on the targeted computer. Online banking websites as well as e-commerce organizations have become popular pharming targets. Desktops are also vulnerable to pharming threats due to their lack of security administration. Pharming and phishing threats have been used simultaneously and these can cause the most potential for online identity theft. Unfortunately, anti virus and anti-spyware software are often incapable of protecting against this type of cybercrime.
Techopedia Explains Pharming
Routers have been surfacing as being just as vulnerable to pharming as hosts files. Unfortunately, router pharming is much more difficult to detect. Harmful DNS information can land on routers in two ways:
