Phishing is a type of cyberattack in which criminals disguise themselves as reputable businesses or trusted individuals to obtain valuable information, like your network credentials, passwords, or financial information.
As of 2019, phishing is one of the most popular types of cybercrimes in the United States. Despite increased awareness about the dangers of phishing, the variety and success rate of phishing attacks have continued to increase in the States, which now accounts for 86% of all phishing attacks globally.
Phishing attacks aren’t just on the rise; they’re harder to defend against. Phishing causes more than four times the damage that viruses and ransomware cause. All it takes is one fraudulent email to fool one of your employees, and the damage is done. So, what are the best ways to stop a phishing attack? The first step is to understand what makes the threat so dangerous.
The Changing Face of Phishing
In the past, fraudsters relied on “spray and pray” approaches to phishing. This method uses emails with minimal personalization and very generic, templated emails. The idea was that one recipient among the thousands of emails would be gullible enough to click on the dangerous link.
Today, the phishing landscape is much more diverse and sophisticated – often customized to target your organization or employees. This has helped keep the efficacy rate of phishing attacks high — despite the proliferation of new and advanced cybersecurity tools — and made mitigating phishing attacks a priority for the majority of cybersecurity decision makers. Here are the new phishing-style attacks you’re likely to see in 2019.
Spear Phishing
Spear phishing is one of the more targeted forms of phishing techniques in which the attacker has gathered some information about you, usually from social media channels or the world wide web. Using information about a recent purchase, business trips or life event, the hacker will then craft a convincing email that asks you to help them with something related to that event, such as refunds, claims of outstanding balances and so on.…