With the development of Internet technologies and the expansion of the Internet sphere, the probability of encountering fraudsters has increased. Phishing, a type of fraud aimed at obtaining access to confidential user information (logins, passwords), has recently become widespread. To prevent phishing, you can contact the penetration testing services company for help. Phishing messages require immediate action and leave no time for reflection. Fake news often comes from well-known brands and affects the emotional perception of information. The phishing message informs you about the status of your bank account. Promises financial gain with minimal effort (draw, possible unexpected inheritance claim, etc.). Offers significant financial opportunities on incredibly favorable terms. After news about natural disasters, phishing messages call for donations or offer help to sick children, asking for mercy.
To obtain information about customers of banks and electronic payment systems, and to spread viruses in networks, fraudsters send not only letters to e-mail addresses, but also pop-up windows with online advertising, search results, and messages from the system. Experts estimate that 70% of phishing attacks on social networks are successful. That’s because most Internet users don’t pay enough attention to cybersecurity.
Points That Indicate A Phishing Attack And How You Can Protect Yourself
You received an email from an address that is not registered in your address book. Phishing messages may contain grammatical and spelling errors. These messages prompt you to follow a link to avoid potential problems. Fake messages always contain requests for passwords, personal information, and financial account details.
How To Protect Yourself From Phishing?
Create multiple email addresses to use, one for personal correspondence only and one for public access. Make a habit of never replying to spam. Please review the results before following the suggested links. This can lead to phishing sites. Use spam filters. Update your internet browser regularly. If you suspect you’ve been a victim of online fraud: Change the passwords of all accounts that may be targeted by fraudsters. Contact your bank to let them know that fraudsters may be using your information and ask them to block your bank account. Track your bank statements and credit card transaction reports. Attention and caution on the Internet will save you from unnecessary worries and you will not become another victim of cyber fraudsters.
While UnderDefense’s security professionals are primarily focused on finding and patching software vulnerabilities, end users still remain the weakest line of defense in the process. Phishing is a mode of Internet fraud that fraudulently obtains a variety of valuable information by concealing messages from trusted sources. In the future, this information may be/ will be used to get access to your device and network. Phishing is a targeted cyber attack that uses the victim’s personal info to shape the attack in a more credible way.
What Is The Difference Between Simple Phishing And Targeted Phishing?
Phishing is a social engineering technique used to fraudulently obtain information that can be used to gain access to a device or network. This type of attack uses certain techniques to disguise a message or website as a trusted source. Phishing attacks rely on trust methods and technical tricks to achieve their goals. Targeted phishing is aimed at specific individuals or companies. Such attacks mostly use key methods and techniques such as duplicating login pages on corporate networks and using pre-collected personal information to increase the chances of success. Targeted phishing is particularly devastating because the emails look genuine and victims often send money voluntarily.
Cyber โโattackers begin by identifying and tracking targets and extorting money via email. Fraudsters aim to withdraw funds from your bank accounts. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to this type of fraud because there are fewer bureaucratic barriers to communication between financial staff and executives.
What Types Of Phishing Attacks Are There?
In their cyber attacks, attackers often use the following phishing methods:
Misleading web links. The most common tactic of cyber crooks is to disguise malicious web links to point to legitimate or trusted sources. This type of phishing attack can take many forms, including using a fake URL, creating subdomains for malicious websites, and using domains that look very much like real domains.
Cyber โโcrooks can use Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) to create similar domain names that allow non-ASCII characters, which can confuse them. The visual similarity between symbols is used to create visually indistinguishable domains for fraudulent purposes. Because of this, users may confuse one domain with another. This is done to duplicate, impersonate or redirect users to fraudulent websites. Websites vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks are used by attackers to inject their content into another website. XSS attacks can be used by an attacker to steal data entered on a compromised page, including usernames and passwords, for further use.
Some phishing attacks use XSS to generate pop-ups that appear to come from vulnerable websites but instead load pages controlled by the cyber attacker. This type of hidden redirect usually opens a login form to collect registration data. Due to the prevalence of such attacks, most browsers now display the address bar in a popup window.
Voice and text phishing. Criminals use phone calls and text messages to obtain account information. First, they send notices to bank customers that their accounts have been blocked. The cyber fraudster asks the user to call a specified phone number or visit a website operated by criminals and leave confidential information that will later be used for fraudulent purposes.
Effective Ways To Cyber-Protect Your Organization Against Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks rely heavily on social engineering; That’s why user education is the most important strategy to protect your business. A large amount of information materials is presented on the website of the UnderDefense company, where specialists take various countermeasures against phishing attacks. These actions are much more effective than the software itself because, with the help of these actions, users will learn to recognize the signs of fraudulent emails and will be aware of hidden fake phishing attacks so that their work is maximally effective.
Equally important are administrators who protect employees from accidental money transfers and prohibit access to data for illegal purposes. In general, according to experts, cyber security starts with a clearly defined policy. Companies should coordinate policies for such situations and train their employees. From a technical point of view, you need to properly configure your email client, such as Microsoft Outlook, because the default settings are not suitable for cyber security. In addition, third-party message scanning tools can be used to reduce the effectiveness of phishing attacks or even prevent users from accessing their mailboxes. Modern web browsers also include features to quickly detect phishing attacks and further protect users from cyber fraud.
