Thousands of people all around the world are spending more time on the internet as a result of pandemic/post-pandemic living, and enterprises are still exposed to cyberattacks despite even the most powerful technical protection features. As hackers look for organizational flaws, the common consumer is frequently the victim of cyber-attacks via phishing.

What Is Phishing?

Phishing happens when hackers spoof a trusted authority and use cleverly written emails to manipulate you into accessing a harmful website, downloading a damaged file, or providing your password before exploiting that information to gain access to a company network or your personal information.

One of the most common methods of phishing is to exploit the ability to write to attract consumers to click on a link or open an attachment. These may include strategies such as:

  • Including a fake invoice
  • Requesting personal information from you
  • Claiming an issue with your account or payment details
  • Notifying you of suspicious behavior or attempted log-ins
  • Requesting that you visit a link to make a payment

 

Social Engineering

Social engineering is a type of phishing. Social engineering is the act of tricking someone into disclosing sensitive information rather than taking it openly.

One way to look at it is to relate phishing to another type of computer attack: keylogging. A cybercriminal uses keylogging to physically get into a computer and install a program that records the text that an unwary user inputs, particularly passwords and credit card data. A phishing e-mail, on the other hand, may attempt to fool the computer user into believing that their bank requires them to verify their account username and password.

 

Types of Phishing Attacks

1. Email Phishing

The majority of phishing attacks are delivered via email. Attackers generally establish fake domain names that resemble legitimate businesses and send hundreds of repetitive requests to victims.

Attackers can create fraudulent domains by adding or replacing characters (e.g., my-bank.com instead of mybank.com), using subdomains (e.g., mybank.host.com), or using the trustworthy organization’s name as the email handle (e.g., mybank@host.com).

Many phishing emails utilize a feeling of urgency or a threat to convince the recipient to act fast without first verifying the source or legitimacy of the email.

The following are the aims of email phishing messages:

  • Causing the user to follow a link to a malicious website in order to install malware on their system.
  • Prompting the user to download an infected file and use it to distribute malware.
  • Causing the user to click a link to a phishing website and provide personal information.
  • Triggering the user to respond and share personal information.

2. Spear Phishing

Malicious emails addressed to specific persons are examples of spear phishing. Typically, the attacker already possesses some or all of the following information on the victim:

  • Name
  • Place of employment
  • Job title
  • Email address
  • Specific information about their job role
  • Trusted peers, family members, or other contacts, as well as writing examples

This information increases the success of phishing emails and the manipulation of victims into undertaking tasks and activities such as money transfers.

3. Whaling

Whaling cyberattacks target top management and other positions of power. Whaling attacks have the same final purpose as other forms of phishing attempts, but the approach is frequently quite sophisticated. Senior workers frequently have a wealth of knowledge in the public domain, which attackers might utilize to construct very powerful assaults.

Typically, these threats do not employ techniques such as malicious URLs and fake links. Instead, they employ highly tailored communications based on information gathered from the victim’s study. Whaling attackers, for example, frequently utilize fraudulent tax returns to get sensitive information about the victim and use it to design their attack.

4. Smishing and Vishing

This is a phone-based phishing attack rather than written communication. Smishing is the fraudulent transmission of SMS messages, whereas vishing is the fraudulent transmission of phone calls.

An attacker in a common voice phishing scam poses as a fraud investigator for a credit card firm or bank, notifying victims that their account has been compromised. Criminals then request payment card information from the victim, reportedly to verify their identification or transfer funds to a safe account (which is actually the attacker’s).

Vishing scams may also use automated phone calls posing as from a trustworthy source and instructing the victim to input personal information onto their phone keypad.

 

Signs and Examples of Phishing Attacks

  • False shipment or delivery notices
  • Fake purchase certifications and invoices
  • Personal information requests
  • Promises of appealing benefits
  • Scams using charities or gift cards
  • Use of threatening or urgent language
  • Unusual emails

 

Tips To Protect Yourself From Phishing Attacks

According to new data, phishing exploits continue to be a serious cybersecurity threat. Phishing is the preferred tool of cybercriminals. 

According to Proofpoint’s 2021 State of the Phish Report, phishing attacks are one of the top data security issues confronting enterprises, with three out of every four firms globally reporting attacks in 2020. When assaults were effective, 60% of businesses lost data, and 47% were infected with ransomware

These figures alone demonstrate why phishing remains a popular method in the arsenal of malicious hackers. With 96% of phishing attacks conducted by email, it’s more important than ever for employees to be attentive and think before they click.

However, there are some simple techniques to train yourself:

  • Think twice before clicking on any links!
  • Check to see if your computer’s security software is up to date.
  • Do not provide personal or financial information via email links.
  • Use multi-factor authentication to secure your accounts.
  • Avoid clicking on pop-up dialog windows at all costs.

Many companies may not be aware of these cyberattacks. But it’s a vital thing in this era of the digital world to deliver all the warnings and corporate training for the employees. But if you don’t take the necessary measures to identify and recognize phishing when it occurs, you risk harming the security of your personal information.

So, it becomes a very important task to secure your business from possible threats. Train your users and aware them of Phishing Attacks, Email Spoofing & Ransomware Issues with us. Genese is an authorized partner of KnowBe4.

KnowBe4 is the world’s most popular integrated Security Awareness Training and Simulated Phishing platform. More than 50,000+ organizations worldwide are using it. You now have a way to better manage the urgent IT security problems of social engineering, spear phishing, and ransomware attacks. You can learn about KnowBe4 solutions here.