Phishing in email and instant messaging

Abstract

Phishing is a constantly evolving threat in the world of information security that affects everyone, no matter if you’re a retail worker or the head of IT in a large organisation. Because of this, this thesis aims to give the reader a good overview of what phishing is, and due to its prevalence in email and instant messaging, focuses on educating the reader on common signs and techniques used in phishing in the aforementioned forms of communication. The chosen research method is literature review, as it is the ideal choice for presenting an overview of a larger subject. As a result of the research, many common phishing signs and techniques in both email and instant messaging are presented. Some of these signs include strange senders, fake domain names and spellings mistakes. With this thesis, anyone looking to improve their understanding about phishing can do so in a way that is easy to understand. Some suggestions for future research are also presented based on this thesis’ shortcomings, namely the lack of studies on phishing in instant messaging.