Phishing is a fraud attempt, usually carried out by email, to obtain personal data, to encrypt data or to cause targeted damage. It is easy for the attacker to impersonate your colleague, your bank or your insurance company. The word comes from a combination of password and fishing.
For hackers, phishing is a phenomenally simple way to obtain data because the security awareness of many employees in this area is very low and phishing emails can be created with little effort.
Phishing is one of several social engineering methods that rely on the deception of employees and private individuals.