Types of Phishing Attacks and their Prevention

 What is Phishing?

Phishing is a fraud method where a malicious person sends messages pretending to be a legal person or organization, typically using email or other messaging systems.

To fool unwary users into downloading malware, many cybercriminals misuse spam email to distribute harmful attachments and links.

Types of Phishing Attacks: There are types of phishing attacks, which are given as follows:

Email Phishing: Email is where most phishing attempts are sent. Attackers generally create fake domain names that mimic real businesses and attack their victims with tens of thousands of repetitive requests.

For fake domains, attackers may add or replace characters (e.g. my-firm.com instead of myfirm.com), use subdomains (e.g. myfirm.host.com), or use the name of the trusted organization as the email username (e.g. myfirm@host.com).

Many phishing emails create a sense of urgency or a threat to get the receiver to act immediately without verifying the email’s legitimacy or source.

One of the following is the aim of email phishing messages:

• Encouraging the user to click a link that will take them to a fraudulent website in order to download malware.
• Causing a user to download a malicious file and then using that file to distribute malware
• Influencing the user to click a link to a fraudulent website and provide their personal information
• Encouraging the user to respond and to give personal information.

Spear Phishing: Malicious emails delivered to specific people are referred to as spear phishing. Typically, the attacker already knows some or all of the following facts about the victim:

• Name
• Work place
• Email address
• Details of their job role
• Dependable relatives, friends, or other contacts, as well as writing samples

By using this knowledge, phishing emails can trick recipients into taking actions like money transfers and boost their success.

Whaling: Attacks on top management and other privileged positions are known as whaling. Whaling attacks have the same general objective as other phishing attacks, although their method is frequently quite clever. Senior employees frequently have a wealth of information available to the public, and attackers can use this information to create very powerful attacks.

These attacks typically don’t make use of shady URLs or fake links. Instead, they use the data they learn from their investigation of the victim to create highly targeted messaging. As an illustration, whaling attackers often use fake tax records to gather personal information about the victim and use it to plan their attack.

Smishing and Vishing: Instead of using written communication, this phishing attack communicates via phone. Vishing involves phone conversations, whereas smishing involves the transmission of fake SMS texts.

An attacker would frequently pose as a fraud investigator for a bank or credit card business and tell victims that their accounts have been hacked. The victim is then asked for their credit card information, which is actually owned by the attacker, in order to purportedly authenticate their identification or transfer funds to a secure account (which is really the attacker’s).

Angler Phishing: These attacks make use of fake social media profiles pretending to be from well-known companies. The attacker uses the same profile photo as the real company account and tries to convince a reputable business by using an account name like “@burgerkingcustomercare.”

Attackers benefit from customers’ desire to complain to firms and request help through social media channels. However, the customer contacts the attacker’s fake social account rather than the real brand.

Attackers could request personal information from the consumer in response to such a request in order to recognize the problem and take the proper action. In other instances, the attacker posts a link to a malicious website that appears to be a customer care page.

Conclusion:

Security threats are always changing. In order to access networks and systems, cybercriminals are continuously experimenting with both tried-and-true strategies like phishing and new ones. Don’t be taken by surprise on How to Prevent Phishing Attacks? Get in touch with CRI Advantage right away to learn how we can keep your business safe and secure if you’re seeking a full-time expert.