Pharming is a type of online scam where an attacker redirects internet traffic from a legitimate website to a fake one that looks exactly like the real one. The goal of pharming is to trick people into giving away their personal or financial information, such as login credentials, credit card numbers, or other sensitive data.
Pharming can happen in a few different ways. One way is by infecting a user’s computer with malware, such as a virus or Trojan horse, that alters their system’s DNS settings. This allows the attacker to intercept the user’s web traffic and redirect it to a fake website that looks like the real one.
Another way pharming can occur is through vulnerabilities in a website’s domain name system (DNS) infrastructure. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to hijack the DNS server and redirect users to fake websites.
To protect yourself against pharming, it is important to use a reputable antivirus and anti-malware software, keep your web browser and operating system up to date, and be cautious when entering personal information online. You can also verify that a website is legitimate by checking the URL and looking for security indicators, such as the “https” prefix and a padlock icon in the address bar.
