What Does Phishing Mean?
Phishing is a security exploit in which a perpetrator impersonates a legitimate business or reputable person in order to acquire private and sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs) and passwords.
Techopedia Explains Phishing
Similar to fishing in a lake or river, phishing is computer lingo for fishing over the Internet for personal information. The term was first used in 1996, when the first phishing act was recorded. Phishing uses email spoofing, link manipulation, image filter evasion and website forgery to fool Web users into thinking that a spoofed email or website is genuine and legitimate. Once the user enters vital information, they immediately becomes a phishing victim.
