Phishing attacks are a type of internet piracy where thieves steal personal financial information by posing as reputable companies or government agencies, and individuals can protect themselves by being cautious with unsolicited requests and verifying the authenticity of communications. Phishing attacks have been a persistent cybercrime throughout history, with various notable examples of successful attacks on individuals and corporations, resulting in significant financial losses. Phishing attacks have been successful in various forms, including stealing passwords, installing malware, and impersonating customer service. Phishing attacks can lead to identity theft, financial loss, and damage to one’s reputation. You could receive an email that appears to come from a reputable company that you recognize and do business with, such as your financial institution but could be an internet criminal looking to steal your financial information or identity. You could also be asked to update any information you have on any sites or even governmental information such as your social and could be accidentally giving the phisher your legal information and it would not be your fault as these emails and pages or links could look like the real thing especially with the growth of AI and tools to generate realistic pages and forms. An example of phishing could be in 2007, Swedish bank Nordea lost over 7 million kronor when phishers managed to send fraudulent emails out to bank customers, luring them to install the “haxdoor” Trojan disguised as anti-spam software, which was dubbed the “biggest ever online bank heist” by digital security company McAfee. Nordea customers were hit with phishing emails containing Trojan viruses that installed a keylogger into the victims’ computers and directed them to a fake bank website where hackers intercepted login credentials. While the exact blame can’t be reliably placed, it is worth noting that most customers failed to have a running antivirus installed on their machines. Individuals can protect themselves from phishing attacks by being cautious with unsolicited requests, verifying the authenticity of communications, and never providing personal financial information over the phone or internet unless they initiated the contact. I have been able to keep myself safe as I do not answer unknown numbers, my phone is set to automatically decline unknown numbers, I also ignore texts I do not have the contact information to as I have been phished before with UPS with a text saying my shipping information was input incorrectly for a package I had ordered even though my phone and Google account have my address saved and I have the ability to auto-input my info, but I was still scammed into giving them a dollar or two for the update and “inconvenience fee”. I hope anyone who sees this can use the story and my story as an aid to be vigilant on these internet scammers and phishers.