What is pharming?

A new trend in cybercrime is "pharming". You can find out exactly what that is and how you can protect yourself in this practical tip.

Pharming - that's the reason

Pharming is a new form of online fraud. Pharming is characterized by the following properties:

• "Pharming" is a key word from "phishing" and "farming".
• The aim of "pharming" is the same as with phishing, namely to obtain third-party access data.
• The difference, however, lies particularly in the method:
• In phishing, fake mails are thrown out as "bait" and then waited for someone to "bite", ie follow a link to a phishing page.
• In "pharming", victims are actively contaminated with malware, one speaks of "planting seeds".
• Once the seed has been planted, i.e. malware installed on the victim, it secretly redirects the address entry to a phishing site.
• After entering the web address in the browser, the malware changes the actual IP accessed. For this purpose, for example, the internal host list of the operating system is manipulated or a corrupt DNS server is controlled.
• If the Trojan is well done, the address entered is still displayed in the address line.

How to protect yourself from pharming

If you take the following 6 tips to heart, you are well protected against pharming attacks:

1. The most important thing - in addition to being vigilant when surfing - is the latest version of your firewall, virus scanner and browser.
2. Valid security certificates indicate the authenticity of the website visited. In the picture gallery you will find out how you can display security certificates.
3. Read this practical tip on how to identify Trojans.
4. Trojans are often introduced into other people's computers using fake mails. Use this practical tip to find out how to recognize phishing emails.
5. You can find out how to recognize phishing sites in this practical tip. As additional protection, this recommends that you install "Web of Trust" as a browser extension.
6. Check your host file in suspicious moments. This contains IPs linked to web domains and is located in Windows in the "% SystemRoot% \ system32 \ drivers \ etc \" folder. In the picture gallery you will find out what you should pay attention to here.

In further CHIP-Online practical tips you will learn how to protect yourself from phishing on Twitter or how to recognize Sparkasse fake mails.

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Nowadays, almost all websites that contain sensitive data such as e-mails or bank details offer a Encryption and security certificate. The certificate is displayed when you click the lock symbol in the address line of the browser.

For many sites, a secure HTTPS connection is not established by default, but an unencrypted HTTP connection. In this case, enter "//" in the address bar to establish a secure connection and to view the certificate.

To check whether your host file has been changed by malware, enter "% SystemRoot% \ system32 \ drivers \ etc \" in the address bar of the Windows Explorer. If you open the host file with the editor, no Internet address should appear here, where you enter sensitive data.