phishing

British  

/ ˈfɪʃɪŋ /

noun

1. the practice of using fraudulent e-mails and copies of legitimate websites to extract financial data from computer users for purposes of identity theft

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Etymology

Origin of phishing

C21: from fishing in the sense of catching the unwary by offering bait; computer-hacker slang often replaces f with ph

Example Sentences

A VPN encrypts your connection but doesn’t scan for malware or identify phishing sites.

From Salon

The emails caused concern for some users on social media, who feared it was a scam or phishing attempt designed to glean more of their details.

From BBC

Economic uncertainties are driving down cybersecurity hiring, stretching security teams thin amid a proliferation of data breaches, phishing and ransomware attacks, enterprise technology leaders and recruiters say.

From The Wall Street Journal

The first part allegedly involved a phishing scam, and not of the seafood kind.

From The Wall Street Journal

Half to three-quarters of global spam and phishing are now AI-generated, says Brian Singer, a Ph.D. candidate at Carnegie Mellon University who researches the use of large language models for cyberattacks and defenses.

From The Wall Street Journal