Phishing attacks can take many forms. From simple scams that try to get you to hand over your personal information, such as your credit card or online log in details, to more sophisticated campaigns that attempt to infect entire organizations with malware and espionage software. Here we provide an overview of the most common phishing attack types. These tips will help you to identify a phishing email or text, but we also advise practicing good cyber security habits such as using strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
This can be anything from their passwords and bank accounts to even credit card or social security details. There are many ways in which criminals trick people into parting with this information and here we look at the 5 most common types of phishing attack. Phishing, one of the most common and devastating forms of cyber crime, is on its way back. As with all types of cyber attacks, phishing is just a click away. See how various types of phishing work so that you can see through the bad guys’ attacks.
1. Email phishing
Defend yourself with our advanced email phishing protection. It doesn’t just block and detect the messages, it connects directly to your email provider’s network and contacts you to ensure you only see valid emails from legitimate sources. The reason why so many businesses still get hit is because, while the know they need to secure their environment and protect against email-borne threats; they don’t have the tools necessary to hunt down phishing attacks.
Thankfully, you can stop these fake emails from deluging your inbox. With a little help from Norton Anti-Phishing, you can block malicious messages with ease. Just add the domains of any false websites to a list, and then let Norton Anti-Phishing filter all phishing messages from your email, keeping your inbox safe and secure.
2. Spear phishing
There are two other, more sophisticated, types of phishing involving email. The first, spear phishing, describes malicious emails sent to a specific person. Criminals who do this will already have some or all of the following information about the victim and Spear phishing is an even more targeted type of phishing attack that involves sending fake emails to users in an attempt to get information from them and, sometimes, infect their computers.
Spear phishing can also be called, “targeted phishing.” It often involves sending legitimate-looking emails to specific people within a business or organization instead of sending any kind of email to just anyone. Typically, spear phishing is used by cyber criminals who want to breach the security of a business.
3. Whaling
Whaling utilizes the most popular opportunities for email phishing and turns them into a highly specialized spear phishing attack more effective than any other type of phishing email. Instead of targeting their attacks at high profile individuals, attackers will pick out high profile executives within companies they intend to target. They locate and gather information about the target in order to devise a specific angle on their attack, making it much harder to distinguish from legitimate emails that are being sent between employees,
Whaling attacks aren’t done by random hackers — they’re a lot more targeted than that, focusing on senior executives and important company accounts. It’s a lot subtler, too, with the attack taking aim at these people personally rather than their organization and whaling attacks are more targeted and tend to be a lot subtler than garden-variety phishing attacks. Whaling is a new kind of phishing designed to attack senior executives. Whaling attacks are much more targeted and sophisticated than phishing attacks directed at small businesses or individual users.
4. Smishing and vishing
Smishing and vishing are variants of phishing that occur via text messaging or voice calls. Unlike email phishing which usually takes place over the Internet, smashing (SMS phishing) and vising (voice phishing or Telephone phishing) take place over mobile phone networks. These techniques use unsolicited messages to induce individuals to divulge personal information that can be used for identity theft or fraud.
While these anti-phishing technologies can be useful, criminals are finding new ways of attacking online consumers. These “smishing” and “vishing” attacks use a combination of text messaging and telephone calls to trick people into giving away personal information.
5. Angler phishing
The Angler phishing attack is the most dangerous attack in use today. It uses a blend of social engineering, references to events in popular culture and current affairs, and credible-looking websites, tweets, posts, and emails to help persuade people to engage with phony communications. This kind of phishing enables spear phishing attacks by using believable templates that encourage people to engage and offer up information about their target organization.
Implement DMARC the Right Way to Keep Phishing Attacks
Implement DMARC the Right Way to Keep Phishing Attacks Out of Your Inbox is an e-book guide to implementing DMARC, SPF, and DKIM record to protect your domain from phishing attacks. This book is for any organization that wants to protect their email traffic from phishing attacks.
The problem is that implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly is difficult. Google’s own documentation for implementing DMARC isn’t available for free. And setting it up requires technical skills. That’s why this guide is so valuable — it’s easy to understand, to the point, and packed with helpful tips on how to keep your business safe.
Many of the recent phishing attacks have been stopped at the DMARC line of defense. With this data-driven tool you can take an in-depth look at what is happening in your organization to determine if your employees are falling victim and why. You’ll learn six times when you need to worry about phishing getting through and how you can shore up defenses for these situations
