What is the difference between spam and phishing?

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The main difference between spam and phishing is that spam is unwanted and unnecessary message sent over the web, while phishing is an attempt by attackers to obtain user credentials for activities. malicious by appearing to be trusted entities.

The World Wide Web (WWW) connects millions and millions of users. They can access information in seconds by connecting to this huge network. However, some security threats have emerged with the rapid development of technology. Spam and phishing are two of them. Spam refers to unsolicited message while phishing refers to the status of legal organizations to obtain confidential information from users.

What is spam

Spam is unnecessary message sent via WWW. The most common type of spam is email spam. Most spam consists of links to phishing websites or sites that host malware. Additionally, they may include malware in the form of scripts or some other type of executable attachment. Also, they use a lot of network bandwidth.

Spammers collect email addresses from websites, customer lists, discussion boards, and newsgroups. They sometimes sell these collected email addresses to other spammers. Most online services have policies in place to prevent spammers from spamming their subscribers. Even though many countries pass laws banning spam, their numbers are growing rapidly because it is difficult to catch spammers.

What is phishing?

Phishing refers to a threat by which unauthorized third parties attempt to obtain confidential information such as user name, password, credit card information from users. These parties are distinguished as relying parties to obtain information about users.

Users can transact online through WWW easily and faster. However, online business transactions are reliable as long as the user communicates with reliable organizations. Attackers can mislead users by posing as trusted entities. Therefore, users will enter their sensitive information such as PINs, passwords, and account numbers assuming they are communicating with the appropriate organizations.

For example, the user may receive an email from their bank with a link to click on. Thus, the user clicks on this link to access a separate page asking him to enter his account number, password, etc. Likewise, attackers can obtain user details. Even though the user assumed the email was from the bank, it was from an attacker or unauthorized person. The attacker uses the same company logos, fonts, etc. than the original organization to deceive users.

There are few steps to prevent phishing. If an email leads to a website, it is necessary to verify the web address. Additionally, it can install anti-phishing software to regularly check online accounts and credit reports.

Relationship between spam and phishing

Most spam messages contain links to phishing websites.

Difference between spam and phishing

Definition

Spam refers to unsolicited and unwanted bulk messages. In contrast, phishing is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information from a user for malicious reasons by disguising himself as a trusted entity in electronic communications. These definitions give us an idea of ​​the difference between spam and phishing.

Goal

That said, the main difference between spam and phishing is that spam is used for advertising, phishing, and the spread of malware, while phishing is used to obtain confidential information about users.

Functionality

Additionally, spammers collect email addresses from websites, customer lists, chat rooms, and newsgroups to send spam. They also sell the addresses to other spammers. In the case of phishing, attackers send a real e-mail to the user in order to trick them into entering their information. So this is also an important difference between spam and phishing.

Prevention

User can use alternative email address, should not click links of unknown emails, review privacy terms before registering on websites, do not open attachments of unknown emails to avoid the spam. User can install anti-phishing software to prevent phishing.

Conclusion

In short, spam can increase security threats, such as phishing. The difference between spam and phishing is that spam is unwanted and useless message sent over the web, while phishing is an attempt by attackers to obtain user credentials for malicious activity. by appearing as trusted entities.