With more businesses functioning online, exposure to computers and the Internet has increased manifold. Thus, you have cybercriminals growing in number as well. Hackers are becoming more intelligent than before. However, phishing is still the top threat among all breaches analyzed over the past one year. Therefore, it has become imperative for business organizations to know about phishing and phishing protection methods to apply to prevent them.
We shall now talk about some of the common types of phishing and see how organizations can defend themselves against them.
Emails appear to originate from a recognized sender.
Steals data by impersonating a genuine provider.
In this type of phishing, the cybercriminals impersonate a legitimate provider to steal personal information such as credit card details or login credentials of financial institutions. One example of such deceptive phishing is that of PayPal scammers.
Hackers send out emails to recipients to click on a link to ‘rectify specific discrepancy’ in their accounts. However, the link directs the recipients to a fake PayPal Login Page that the hacker uses to steal info. As a user, one should verify all the URLs carefully and look for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or generic salutations, and be vigilant to tackle such phishing attempts.
Spear Phishing
Characteristics of spear phishing:
Commonly observed on social media sites.
The email looks like it originates from a known sender.
Uses personalized info about the target.
As the name suggests, spear phishing is targeted-phishing. The hacker collects the target’s name, email id, organization details, work phone number, and other crucial information. The objective is to trick the target into believing that they have a connection with the sender. The hacker aims to trick the target into clicking on a spurious link or download a malicious attachment through which he/she attempts to steal personal information. One can observe such spear-phishing in social media sites like LinkedIn, where it is easy to collect information and craft a targeted attack email.
The best phishing protection methods to employ to guard against spear-phishing are:
Be careful when sharing sensitive private information with people
An automated email-analyzing solution to identify such phishing emails is the best investment to make.
CEO Fraud
Characteristics of CEO Frauds:
It usually targets top-level executives.
The objective is to authorize fraudulent financial transactions.
Obtain crucial tax info on all employees.
The modus operandi of the cybercriminals is simple in this type of phishing attack. They try to get hold of the login details of a top enterprise executive. In doing so, the hackers impersonate the CEO or high-ranking official to authorize the financial transactions of the business organization. The criminals also use the same email account to request the taxation or W-2 information of all employees. This information has a high demand on the dark web.
Usually, you do not see high-ranking officials or CEOs participating in the employee phishing awareness programs. Hence, it becomes easy for hackers to target this exclusive group. Here are some phishing protection methods to counter such threats.
Ensure that the top-ranked executives take part in phishing awareness training programs so that they do not become vulnerable targets.
Make sure that the business organization adopts multi-level authentication for authorizing financial transactions.
Pharming
As a result of business organizations adopting phishing awareness programs and the like, the awareness levels of the employees are now high. Hence, it has become challenging for cybercriminals to choose the traditional phishing scams. Therefore, they resort to a new type of phishing known as pharming.
Characteristics of pharming:
Redirect the victim to a malicious website.
Change the IP address associated with a specific website.
Leverage cache-poisoning against DNS servers.
The Internet uses the Domain Name System to convert alphabetical websites to a numerical form to locate and direct visitors easily. The DNS cache poisoning attack entails the hacker targeting a DNS server and changes the IP address associated with the alphabetical name of the website. Thus, the cybercriminal redirects users to a malicious website of their choice. The problem with pharming is that the victim experiences the same issue even when he/she enters the correct site name instead of clicking on the link.
Use only HTTPS-protected websites as far as possible.
Have an updated anti-virus software solution installed on your computer networks.
Ensure to update your security patches regularly.
We have discussed four innovative methods of phishing adopted by cybercriminals all over the world and examined the phishing protection methods that one should use to tackle such phishing attempts. Ultimately, it boils down to two aspects:
Have up to date security systems installed on your computers.
Increase your awareness levels and be vigilant at all times.
These are the most straightforward phishing protection methods you can employ at all times.
Recent cyber attacks targeted over 2,100 computer systems across the US, France, and Germany, taking advantage of a two-year-old VMware vulnerability. This text shares the details of the attack that occurred and the cascading ones that followed.
Cybercriminals keep innovating and devising new tactics to launch malicious phishing campaigns and target unsuspecting users. They are now abusing Google Ads to send phishing emails to users. Read on to learn more regarding the campaign and tips to protect yourself.
Threat actors have leaked the Twitter account data of 235 million individuals, opening them up to cybercrimes and posing a threat to their digital lives. This text shares how the data theft took place, how Twitter retaliated, how cybercriminals leaked over 200 million records, the DPC’s investigation, the previous Twitter data leakage of 5.4 million users, and how you can protect your Twitter accounts to stay safe.
Modern technology has left businesses vulnerable to targeted attacks by malicious hackers and spyware. It’s fairly common for businesses to experience cyberattacks at some point, as hackers try to gain access to confidential information. There are numerous intentions behind targeted attacks, with the primary one being information or data theft.
Email security has made significant strides in 2022, but so did the threat actors trying to skirt these advancements. Here are the top email security news headlines of 2022.
It is imperative for organizations to understand the latest threats and predictions for cybercrimes and security moving into the new year. This text looks at the top cybercrime and security predictions for 2023 and suggests what individuals and organizations need to do.
With alarming data and statistics sharing the increase in password attacks and rising password compromise and account takeovers, there is a need for a change in login methods and password protection. This text shares password statistics, the need for password protection, novel passwordless approaches, and steps you can take to protect your passwords.
Email threats, phishing, impersonation, and advanced email threats are on the rise, and Tessian’s State of Email Security Report shares valuable intel into how significant these threats have gotten. This text summarizes the report’s findings and shares how organizations can protect against advanced email threats in the coming time.
The digital world is gripped with alarming news and novel scams each week. This week’s cybersecurity bulletin shares the top cybersecurity news covering Russian data breaches, extortion scams, fresh IceXLoader malware campaign, China’s spying activities, and Google’s SEO poisoning. Let us take a look.
Threat actors are developing advanced and sophisticated techniques to target organizations worldwide with new tools. This week’s top cybersecurity news highlights new double extortion tools, why Google is being sued, the FBI’s warning to US students, the cyber espionage campaign on Asian casinos, 2.2 million stolen customer records, and OldGremlin targeting Russia with ransomware.
With the surge in cybercrimes and continuously evolving attack methods, being cyber smart is something every employee and individual should aspire to become for protection against cyber threats. Here is how you can become cyber smart with select cybersecurity tips.
A malicious campaign targeting Slovakian internet users is another grim reminder of how phishing operators use legitimate brands and services to evade security controls. The article discusses how attackers used a trusted domain like LinkedIn to bypass secure email gateways.
Microsoft has discovered a PSOA, a cyber mercenary organization with sophisticated hiring tools that can allow threat actors to exploit Windows and Adobe vulnerabilities for malicious activities. This article looks at KNOTWEED, the identified threat, what it is, how KNOTWEED works, and how you can identify and protect yourself from KNOTWEED.(more…)
Email scams continue to pose significant risks to online data, finances, and accounts. This article discusses the elements involved, the top email scams of the year, and the practices that cybercriminals are using for evolved email scams. It also shares key statistics for email and phishing scams and how to avoid all email scams.
Constantly working to save Google and its users from serious threats, the Threat Analysis Group (TAG) continues to publish analyses on various evolving threats like commercial surveillance vendors, serious criminal operators, and government-backed attackers. Continuing the legacy, they recently shared intelligence on a new segment of attackers called hack-for-hire. Such hackers focus on compromising victims’ accounts and extracting data as a service. Read on to know more about this group.
This article provides an overview of the joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) on the Maui ransomware, which has been used by North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors to attack Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector organizations.
The current situation of OT products has revealed a tough spot, highlighting 56 vulnerabilities. With over ten vendors, including the likes of Siemens, Emerson, Honeywell, and more, the latest vulnerabilities in various popular protocols and products have certainly provided a new perspective.
The Internet is a vast place. It is estimated that there areclose to 2 billion websites online in 2022. Each of these websites has a unique hostname, or ‘domain’, that can be resolved into an IP address.
Whilst anyone can access these websites, one should note that some domains are more ‘valuable’ than others. Domains that include relevant keywords are more likely to show at the top of search engine results, directing more traffic to those sites. For example, a Google search for “how to make a voicemail” may direct you to websites with the word ‘voicemail’ in the domain name.
Microsoft recently discovered high-severity vulnerabilities in a mobile framework owned by mce Systems and used by several large mobile service providers. These vulnerabilities are likely to be attack vectors for attackers to access system configurations and sensitive information.
Today, the digital revolution has come to a stage where businesses without an online presence could get obliterated in no time. However, an inevitable consequence of cyber risk is that if your online data and communication are not secure, you better be prepared for a disaster.