Phishing is a form of criminal activity using social engineering or trickster techniques to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an apparently official electronic communication, such as an email or an instant message. The term phishing arises from the use of increasingly sophisticated lures to "fish" for users' financial information and passwords.

Phishing attempts that target employees of an particular company are often called "Spear Phishing". There is a current bill called the Anti-Phishing Act of 2005 now under debate and other community-driven methods are underway to attack phishers like the Phried Phish project from Castlecops where you can submit phishing address and skilled hunters will go after them and get them shutdown!

Coming soon...a bevy of tools and techniques to help protect your self from phishing.