What Is Baiting?

Many phishing attacks ask for a user to provide private information in order to avoid a negative consequence, such as instructing a user to log into her bank account to verify that her information has not been not compromised. But cyberattacks involving baiting usually include the promise of some kind of reward if a certain action is performed. In other words, hackers attempt to bait users into committing a given action in exchange for a promised positive outcome. The promised outcome could be any number of things, including rewards like free music downloads. Baiting can even involve a physical item––for example, a free thumb drive––presented as a small reward for completing a requested task, such as participating a phone survey. However, these freebies come with a price. For example, a free thumb drive will likely come preloaded with malware.