Spoofing vs. Phishing — What's the Difference?

A satirical imitation; a parody or send-up.

Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent ("spoofed") message designed to trick a human victim into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious software on the victim's infrastructure like ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim.

A deception or ruse.

(computing) The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.

To do a spoof of; satirize.

The act of circumventing security with an alias.

To play a trick on; deceive.

Present participle of phish

(Computers) To assume or emulate the identity of (another user or device), as when gaining access to a system, for example.

Present participle of spoof

(computing) A method of attacking a computer program, in which the program is modified so as to appear to be working normally when in reality it has been modified with the purpose of circumventing security mechanisms.

(computing) Phishing.