Spring may well be upon us, and soon the sportsmen will be casting lines into the lakes and rivers and seas in search of the great bounty that awaits them there. To that end they will deploy any manner of temptation, or bait, that will facilitate the biggest possible catch. But it’s not as seasonal a pursuit as you might imagine.

Fishing—or for our purposes, phishing—has become the menace de rigueur in the cyber world. Along with most human pursuits, technology is keeping pace with this favorite pastime of the hacker world. It’s a lot like that other favorite pastime, baseball. In phishing scams, the hackers pitch any variety of bait across the digital strike zones of millions of people, just to see if anybody will take a swing at it. Inevitably a swing and a miss, the damage is done before the victim even realizes what has happened.

The Face In The Mirror

Until it happens to you or someone on your staff, the loudest question is always, “Who falls for that trick?” A recent Wall Street Journal article suggests that, in most cases, your biggest online security threat is actually you. Phishing is no longer reminiscent of the old cane pole and straw hat. It’s gotten quite sophisticated. At least the bait has. Logos and taglines and calls to action have evolved to capture multi-tasking consumers in a hectic moment who just found out their Apple ID has been compromised, despite the fact that their Apple ID has not been compromised.

So when you’re looking at emails and see familiar images compelling you to take important action, don’t take the bait.