What is phishing?

Phishing is an attack that tries to trick people into revealing sensitive information by impersonating a trustworthy business or person, usually through fraudulent email or websites.

What it means

Per NIST, phishing uses deception — a fake but legitimate-looking message or site — to get someone to hand over data such as passwords or account numbers. It is one of the most common entry points for breaches, which is why security-awareness and incident-response roles treat it as a core topic.

Sources

• National Institute of Standards and Technology — NIST CSRC Glossary: https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary

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