What is Phishing?
Phishing is a significant online security concern that requires everyone's attention, as scammers actively seek to steal sensitive information. To avoid falling victim to hackers, continue reading to discover its history, the prevalent forms these attacks can assume, and effective methods for identification.
While phishing might seem like a recent addition to online security threats, it has been a noteworthy issue for an extended period. Since the initial reported instance in 1995, phishing attacks have developed and expanded over the years.
What are the different types of phishing and how do you spot an attack?
Mass Campaign:
In a mass campaign, scammers deploy a widespread phishing scam impersonating a legitimate corporate entity. Targets are often prompted to provide their credentials or credit card details.
Spotting a Mass Campaign:
Emails relying on spoofing may appear to be from a trusted sender, but careful inspection reveals numerous red flags.
Watch for errors or inconsistencies such as misspellings or a sender's email address with the wrong domain.
Scrutinize messages for unusual-looking logos, as they might contain malicious HTML attributes.
Exercise caution with emails containing only an image and minimal text.
Whaling:
Whaling is a form of spear-phishing that targets high-profile individuals, especially senior executives within an organization.
Identifying Whaling:
Be cautious of requests from senior leadership members with no prior contact.
Ensure any seemingly ordinary request is directed to a work email, not a personal one.
If a request seems urgent and potentially costly if fraudulent, independently verify it through a separate email, text, or call to the purported sender.
Spear Phishing:
Spear phishing attacks involve emails tailored to target a specific organization or individual, incorporating personalized information to enhance their legitimacy.
Recognizing Spear Phishing:
Be vigilant for internal requests from individuals in other departments or those seeming unusual for their job function.
Exercise caution with links to documents stored on shared drives like Google Suite, O365, and Dropbox, as these may redirect to fake websites.
Avoid clicking on documents requiring a user login ID and password, as this could be an attempt to steal credentials.
Don't click links from purported known websites; instead, manually enter the website address in your browser to ensure you reach the authentic site, not a phishing one.
Clone Phishing:
Clone phishing occurs when a genuine email message from a trusted organization is duplicated and modified, substituting links with ones that lead to a malicious website.
Identifying Clone Phishing:
Exercise caution with unexpected emails from service providers, even if they seem part of regular communication.
Be alert to emails requesting personal information that the service provider wouldn't normally ask for. If the request seems valid, refrain from following the link; instead, manually enter the information directly into the website through your browser.
Additional Warning Signs:
When clicking a link, scrutinize the webpage to ensure it resembles the genuine site you anticipate. Pay attention to its layout, colours, other pages, and the main menu. Ask yourself whether it's truly necessary to input your credentials into a form.
When evaluating an email's legitimacy, be cautious if it's from an unexpected sender. Check the sender's actual email address and be on the lookout for unusual grammar mistakes.
Look for social engineering indicators in phishing emails, such as a sense of urgency, prompts to click for a reward or unexpected offers.
Always double-check the URL. Watch for confusing spelling errors and verify if multiple subdomains are in use.
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