The stolen information or access may be used to steal money, install malware, or spear phish others within the target organization. The goal of the attacker can vary, with common targets including financial institutions, email and cloud productivity providers, and streaming services. Most attacks are 'bulk attacks' that are not targeted and are instead sent in bulk to a wide audience. Phishing attacks, often delivered via email spam, attempt to trick individuals into giving away sensitive information or login credentials. The importance of phishing awareness has increased in both personal and professional settings, with phishing attacks among businesses rising from 72% to 86% from 2017 to 2020. Measures to prevent or reduce the impact of phishing attacks include legislation, user education, public awareness, and technical security measures. It is a variation of fishing and refers to the use of lures to 'fish' for sensitive information. The term 'phishing' was first recorded in 1995 in the cracking toolkit AOHell, but may have been used earlier in the hacker magazine 2600. As of 2020, it is the most common type of cybercrime, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim. Phishing is a form of social engineering and scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as ransomware. The email deliberately misspells some words.

The sender is attempting to trick the recipient into revealing confidential information by prompting them to 'confirm' it at the phisher's website.

An example of a phishing email, disguised as an official email from a (fictional) bank. For the act of swapping items, see Swishing.

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