Combating cyberattacks happen to be a top priority for global organizations. In 2020, phishing was among the most extensively deployed attack modes by malicious actors, as per FBI reports. Besides, phishing attacks are on the rise as attackers use various social engineering techniques. In 2019, around 114,702 phishing attacks were recorded, which jumped to 241,324 in 2020. The digital landscape brings several threats against which one needs to take serious guard. As a business or marketing head, one needs to know the value of anti-phishing tools. Most successful enterprises try to draw their line of defense against phishing attacks by collaborating with accomplished IT security teams and create the proper awareness among their employees.
Facts And Figures Defining The Threat To Organizations
The following statistics serve as an eye-opener to anyone concerned about a likely phishing attack on their organization.
- Emails deliver almost 96% of phishing attacks, while malicious websites account for another 3%.
- As of January 2020, Google had registered 2,145,013 phishing websites.
- As much as 97% of the users fail to recognize sophisticated emails with phishing links.
- Spear phishing accounts for 95% of attacks on enterprise networks.
- 85% of organizations have been targeted by malicious actors using phishing at least once.
Types Of Phishing Attacks And Securing The Organization
Here are the most prevalent modes of phishing attacks and what steps an organization can take to protect itself from the threat.
Deceptive Phishing
The most common phishing attack type the organizations face is deceptive phishing. Here, malicious actors impersonate an authentic establishment to steal login credentials or confidential data. Besides, the attackers create a sense of urgency in the phishing email. It prompts the victims to make a hasty decision. Some of the techniques that they use in deceptive phishing tactics are:
- Imitating legitimate links and impersonating genuine brands
- Using shortened links and redirections
- Manipulating brand logos
- Only including minimal content on emails to deceive systems
The best phishing protection tools prevent such malicious emails from reaching the inbox. Using email filters work wonders while securing critical information systems. One of the famous phishing email examples is the PayPal scam. The scammers spoofed the login page of PayPal, sending attack emails to users. Trying to furnish valuable data, many users divulged their confidential information to the attackers.
Securing The Organization
Users need to inspect the URLs closely, given that the spoofed website would be a lookalike of the original site. Besides, one may detect such emails by observing the text. Often, phishing emails come with spelling errors, grammar mistakes, and generic salutation. Using robust anti-phishing solutions can avoid the scenario of employees accidentally clicking on malicious links.
Spear Phishing
Most organizations face spear-phishing threats, wherein the malicious actors customize phishing emails. In the process, they carefully integrate the target’s organization name, position, name, contact details, and other information into the email. The recipient starts believing that they share a common association with the sending party. However, the intention of the attackers remains the same as in deceptive phishing. When a user clicks an URL or an email attachment, they hand over the credentials in the process. Spear phishing often targets large organizations, and they are commonly found on social media sites. In such cases, the attackers deploy several data sources to target the victims.
Securing The Organization
Besides installing anti-phishing software to block malicious emails, organizations need to arrange awareness training for their staff. It makes sure that they would not be opening suspicious emails. As an enterprise owner, one should discourage employees from publishing sensitive corporate or personal information on social media. For optimal email phishing protection, one needs to invest in robust solutions. Practical tools can successfully evaluate inbound emails and divert malicious ones to the spam folder.
Whaling
Whaling is a more sophisticated attack mode, targeting executives or anyone in the organization individually. Here, the attackers attempt harpooning a professional and eventually steals the login credentials. Once they get through, they target the CEOs or high-ranking officials to obtain sensitive data.
Securing The Organization
Often, whaling attempts are successful, as CEOs keep them aloof from security awareness training. Therefore, to ward off these types of attacks, all the personnel, and the CEOs and executives must regularly participate in awareness and training programs. Besides, organizations must use MFA (multi-factor authentication) channels for financial transactions’ authentication. It ensures that no one would be able to authorize payments solely through emails. Besides, installing anti-malware solutions in the system can provide additional security.
Vishing
Emails are not the only weapon of attackers. They deploy other means as well. Vishing is one such attack mode, where the perpetrators use a phone call to deceive the prospective victim. Often, they deploy VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) servers and eventually mimic different entities for stealing sensitive data or funds. They also resort to ID spoofing, where they call the victims from fake numbers that resemble the local phone numbers of the region.
Securing The Organization
Even if there are anti-phishing solutions implemented to ensure a secure email inbox, one needs to make sure that your employees refrain from answering calls from unknown numbers. It is advisable to use a caller ID app to verify the location from where the communication originates. Besides, one must make sure one doesn’t share any card number or other details over such calls.
SMishing
Because many people are presently aware and more cautious of fraud via emails, attackers use SMS at times to trick users with text messages. Once a target clicks on a malicious link received through an SMS, personal information would be compromised.
Securing The Organization
If an SMS comes from an unknown number that requires giving away user credentials, the recipient must verify the purpose by calling the alleged organization directly. It could prevent the employees from getting tricked by fraudsters.
Measures To Secure The Organization From Phishing
It is business owners’ and managers’ responsibility to think of how to stop phishing emails seriously. Experts recommend effective anti-phishing software that works as spam detectors. Besides using these sophisticated tools, responsible officials must also follow several safe practices to secure the organization, as mentioned below.
- Training employees not to click on any links or attachments from unknown sources and organize sessions to help employees master anti-phishing best practices.
- Investing in robust anti-ransomware solutions, given that phishing and ransomware are closely linked.
- Deploying MFA wherever possible to leverage security.
- Consulting professionals for the right anti-phishing solutions.
- Refraining from making hasty decisions, even if the email seems urgent.
- Making sure that all software and operating systems are up to date.
Final Words
With the increased sophistication of technology, attackers have also been deploying more innovative mechanisms to dupe various organizations. However, successful phishing largely depends on user behavior, too. It means that the best guard against such attempts pivots around intelligent tactics to dodge social engineering attempts. Hence, employee awareness and training are as important as other expensive solutions to neutralize any possible phishing attacks on the organization.