Recognizing that phishing is an ever-growing cybersecurity threat, the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released an infographic designed to highlight the impact it is having on consumers and the financial industry.
The infographic, titled “Phishing: Don’t Take the Bait,” explains methods scammers use to take advantage of people through emails, texts and phone calls by making such interactions appear to be from someone their victims know. Once they get someone to click on a link or obtain personal information via such means, they then typically try to steal the person’s money, identity or gain access to their computer.
From 2015 to 2017, losses connected to phishing scams have grown from $8 million annually to nearly $30 million, according to statistics compiled by the FBI.
The infographic offers advice for how people can identify potential scams, how to protect themselves against phishing attempts and how to notify the proper authorities if they suspect such an attempt.
“One of the best ways to combat phishing is to implement multi-factor authentication, which is a second step to verify you are you, like sending a text to your phone with a confirmation code,” ABA Senior Vice President Paul Benda said in a press release. “We encourage consumers to use MFA (multi-factor authentication) for any of their accounts that support it, especially email and financial accounts.”
MFA entails requiring more than one method of authentication from independent categories of credentials to verify the user’s identity for a login or other transaction. A common MFA method is requiring a user to enter a password and identify certain details in a photo to prove that there is an actual person trying to access an account rather than an automated system. More robust MFA systems utilize applications that periodically generate new secondary passwords connected to a consumer account that only can be viewed on the accountholder’s mobile device.