What is phishing?
Phishing is the practise of delivering fake messages that appear to come from a trusted source. It is normally done by email. The intent is to either install malware on the victim's computer or steal personal information like credit card numbers and login credentials. Everyone should be aware of phishing in order to be secure because it is a common form of cyberattack.
The link may direct the victim to a website that looks identical to the legitimate one, but is actually controlled by the attacker. Once the victim enters their information, the attacker can steal it and use it for their own purposes, such as accessing the victim's bank account or stealing their identity.
The oldest scam in a cybercriminal's toolkit, phishing may still be incredibly successful at deceiving unsuspecting victims. The bulk of assaults that can be linked to phishing are really the result of human mistake, despite the fact that security professionals are continuously under pressure to fight against phishing attempts. Untrained staff are vulnerable to clicking on dangerous email links, being taken advantage of by malicious redirects, or being duped by a very identical website operated by hackers.
Example: Creating a Fake Email Address The attacker will create a fake email address that looks similar to a legitimate one, such as by changing a single letter or adding a small variation. For example, if the legitimate email address is "example@gmail.com", the attacker might create a fake email address like "exampIe@gmail.com" (with a capital "i" instead of an "L").
Report/ proofpoint of this phishing attack
In 2019, 65% of US organisations were victims of successful phishing attacks, according to Proofpoint's 2020 State of the Phish report. This illustrates the complexity of attackers and the necessity of security awareness training that is just as sophisticated. It becomes more challenging to teach consumers to recognise suspicious messages when you take into account that not all phishing schemes operate in the same manner. Some are generic email blasts, while others are well constructed to target a particular demographic.
How does phishing works?
Phishing begins with a phoney email or other contact meant to entice a victim. The communication is designed to appear to have originated from a trusted sender. If the victim is duped, he or she is coerced into disclosing private information, usually on a fake website. Malware may potentially be downloaded into the target's PC.
In order to increase the possibility that users may click the malicious link unintentionally, hackers utilise link spoofing to make malicious URLs look to be authentic. Trained or knowledgeable users who are used to using a check-before-click routine can quickly spot some of these altered URLs. The effectiveness of human-initiated visual examination and detection is nevertheless diminished by homograph assaults, which prey on similarly-looking characters.
Some of common ways that phishing attacks occur:
Email phishing, Spear phishing, Smishing, Vishing, Malware-based phishing, and Whaling
Email phishing
An email phishing attack is a method of phishing in which attackers sends customised emails that seems to have originated from a trusted source and instruct them to do a certain action. Sensitive data loss, malware downloads, or even financial loss may arise.