NEW DELHI: Tech giant Google has come up with a new way to inform and educate users about potential phishing attacks. The company's Jigsaw unit has published a quiz which tests whether users are able to identify the phishing mails or not. The quiz tests users’ knowledge on the basis of series of emails and see if they can distinguish between a phishing mail or not. Click here to take the
quiz.

In an official post the company said, "Phishing is, by far, the most common form of cyberattack. One percent of emails sent today are phishing attempts. And it often represents a more serious threat than the nuisance offers for free money we’ve all seen in our inboxes."

The purpose of a phishing attack is to steal passwords. Attackers send an appealing message such as free money, bogus security alert or others. The mail also consists of a link clicking on which will ask for the personal details and as soon as users enter the details the attacker get access to their account.

In some cases the phishing attack might look like a legitimate email written by someone you know. These so-called “spear-phishing” attacks are often one of the first steps of larger cyberattacks, where attackers use a carefully constructed email to fool someone into entering their login credentials into a fake page.

The quiz created by the company is based on security trainings of nearly 10,000 journalists, activist, and political leaders from all around the world. The company also suggest that the best way to stay protected from phishing attacks is two-factor authentication. The company said, "When you have two-factor authentication enabled, even if an attacker successfully steals your password they won’t be able to access your account. We also offer a Chrome extension called Password Alert that protects you from entering your Google password in a fake login page."

Source: gadgetsnow.com