WHAT IS PHISHING?
Phishing is a cyber crime that leverages deceptive emails, websites, and text messages to steal confidential personal and corporate information.
Victims are tricked into giving up personal information such as their credit card data, phone number, mailing address, company information, etc. Criminals then use this information to steal the victim's identity and commit further crimes using this stolen identity.
Criminals who use phishing tactics are successful because they carefully hide behind emails and websites familiar to the intended victim. For example, the email address might be [email protected] instead of [email protected] Using these fake email addresses, they urge recipients to update their account credentials to protect them from fraud.
Phishing is a type of social engineering that criminals use to steal data, infect computers, and infiltrate company networks.
What Are The Different Types Of Phishing?
These different types of phishing are part of a greater social engineering scheme. Social engineering is a savvy way to trick people into giving up information, access, and details they know they should keep secure and private.
Related reading: 19 Examples of Common Phishing Emails
In a word: extremely.
The reality is simple—3.4 billion fraudulent emails are sent out daily as part of phishing schemes to access or compromise sensitive information. According to Verizon's 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report, more than a third of data breaches in 2022 leveraged some kind of phishing component. In addition, nearly 75% of phishing scams used HTTPS sites to perpetuate their attacks, which makes those threats more challenging to spot and avoid.
As unprecedented digital transformation continues to impact many industries worldwide, all organizations must bolster the human side of their cyber security practices through current, multifaceted phishing simulation and awareness training initiatives.
For more information on global phishing benchmarks collected through the Gone Phishing Tournament and expert tips on minimizing related risks, download your free copy of the full report.
What is Trap Phishing?
Trap phishing typically preys on security vulnerabilities in common online behavior. Such habits can include completing online transactions, sharing information on social media, and more. Trap phishing schemes lure unsuspecting users to a malicious webpage by posing as a legitimate organization or familiar business.
Often interpolating recognized branding or vocabulary, victims are enticed to click on a phishing email link and/or provide sensitive information via the malicious webpage. Though not as targeted as other phishing scams, these generic attacks can still be quite effective.
How Does Phishing Happen?
Phishing happens when an unsuspecting victim responds to fraudulent requests that demand action. This action can include downloading an attachment, clicking a link, filling out a form, updating a password, calling a phone number, or using a new Wi-Fi hotspot.
A crucial aspect of successful security awareness training is educating people about how easy it is to be tricked into giving up confidential information.
The following examples of phishing underscore how easy it is for anyone to be a victim of phishing.
6 Clues That You Are A Target Of A Phishing Email
Try to spot the clues in the following examples of phishing emails:
How to Prevent Phishing
To help prevent phishing, Terranova Security recommends taking the following precautions:
1. Educate your employees about phishing. Take advantage of free phishing simulation tools to educate and identify phishing risks.
2. Use proven security awareness training and phishing simulation platforms to keep employees' phishing and social engineering risks top of mind. Create internal cyber security heroes committed to keeping your organization cyber secure.
3. Remind your security leaders and cyber security heroes to regularly monitor employee phishing awareness with phishing simulation tools. Use phishing microlearning modules to educate, train, and change behavior.
4. Provide ongoing communication and campaigns about cyber security and phishing. This includes establishing strong password policies and reminding employees about the risks that can come in the format of attachments, emails and URLs.
5. Establish network access rules that limit the use of personal devices and the sharing of information outside of your corporate network.
6. Ensure that all applications, operating systems, network tools, and internal software are up-to-date and secure. Install malware protection and anti-spam software.
7. Incorporate cyber security awareness campaigns, training, support and education into your corporate culture.
Watch this video highlighting how easy it is for phishing to happen in any organization.
What is a Phishing Simulation?
Phishing simulation is the best way to raise awareness of phishing risks and identify which employees are at risk for phishing.
Phishing simulation allows you to incorporate cyber security awareness into your organization in an interactive and informative format.
Real-time phishing simulations are a fast and effective way to educate people and increase alertness levels to phishing attacks. People see first-hand how CEO fraud, emails, fake websites, malware and spear phishing are used to steal personal and corporate information.
What are the Top 10 Benefits of a Phishing Simulation?
Phishing simulation gives your organization these top 10 benefits:
1. Measure the degrees of corporate and employee vulnerability
2. Eliminate the cyber threat risk level
3. Increase user alertness to phishing risks
4. Instill a cyber security culture and create cyber security heroes
5. Change behavior to eliminate the automatic trust response
6. Deploy targeted anti-phishing solutions
7. Protect valuable corporate and personal data
8. Meet industry compliance obligations
9. Assess the impacts of cyber security awareness training
10. Segment phishing simulation
Want to give it a try? Claim your free phishing simulation here.
To learn more about phishing and how to keep your organization cyber secure, take advantage of these complimentary resources:
Contact us at 1-866-889-5806 or at [email protected] to learn more about phishing simulations.
Terranova Security is committed to delivering people-centric training that makes your organization cyber security aware.