At its core, the goal of email phishing attacks is to fool individuals into believing they are communicating with a legitimate, trustworthy source through carefully crafted messages. These emails often imitate real organizations and can be extremely effective at exploiting a victim’s trust to reveal sensitive information such as login credentials or financial details.
Identity Theft
Attackers carry out phishing attempts primarily to steal a victim’s identity. Successful phishing attacks trick a victim into disclosing private information like their Social Security number or bank account details. The consequences of successful identity theft can be severe: victims may experience long-term damage to their credit ratings and may even suffer emotional distress. Recovering from identity theft can be difficult and complicated.
Deployment of Malware or Ransomware
Phishing schemes frequently serve as a gateway for malware deployment. Social engineering attackers first send seemingly legitimate emails that trick individuals into opening the message and interacting with a malicious link or attachment. Email impersonation, for example, is one of many phishing attack methods in which a victim is directed to a fake website where malware is automatically downloaded onto their device.
Corporate Espionage
Phishing attacks can also function as tools for corporate espionage. Social engineering attackers can gain unauthorized entry into confidential corporate systems. The consequences of such breaches are serious, as organizations may lose their competitive advantage, suffer damaged relationships with clients, and face significant legal repercussions.
Damage to Reputation
Phishing attacks can severely harm an organization’s reputation, as customers, stakeholders, and the general public tend to lose trust following such scams and data breaches. Reputational damage can have severe and long-lasting effects on an organization’s financial performance, potentially leading to stock price declines and, over time, the erosion of customer loyalty.
Data Harvesting and Selling
After successfully executing one or more phishing attacks, social engineering attackers can begin collecting and selling user data such as login credentials, financial information, and personal identification details. This data is then sold on the dark web or used to fuel future cybercrimes. The impacts of data harvesting and selling can be far-reaching, as organizations or individuals may experience unauthorized transactions or further attacks.
Disruption of Services
Phishing attacks can be designed to disrupt an entity’s services, often as a form of protest or to create chaos. Attackers use phishing to gain access to critical systems, then alter, delete, or hold data for ransom, crippling normal operations. This can lead to halted services, creating a domino effect of financial losses and customer dissatisfaction. The disruption can range from temporary service unavailability to severe, long-term operational paralysis, highlighting the seriousness of such cyberattacks and the cascading consequences they can unleash on an organization’s functionality and reputation.
Propagation of Misinformation
Phishing attacks can spread misinformation because they grant attackers access to trusted communication channels, such as official email accounts or social media profiles. Attackers can use these channels to distribute false information aimed at causing reputational harm and influencing public opinion. The credibility of these trusted sources makes the misinformation more impactful, potentially leading to far-reaching consequences, including public confusion, damaged reputations of individuals or organizations, and even market volatility.
Phishing Attack Delivery Methods
Cybercriminals use various digital communication techniques in phishing attacks, including malicious emails, fake websites, and fraudulent text messages.
- Email – By far the most common method used in phishing attacks is email. The message may include logos and links that resemble those of a real business. The email content often asks the recipient to click a link that takes them to a webpage where they are prompted to enter credentials such as usernames, passwords, account numbers, and similar information.
- Fake Advertising – Some phishing scams involve redirecting a web user to a fake page via a link advertising products or services. When the user attempts to make a purchase, the cybercriminal captures the user’s sensitive information.
- Social Media – Cybercriminals may use social media to distribute fake URLs that link to phishing websites. Social media can also be used in phishing to impersonate an executive or authority figure or for reconnaissance on a target.
- Content Injection – Attackers will sometimes alter content on a legitimate website to redirect the user to a fake page. That fake page will then ask the user to enter credentials or other sensitive information.
- Web-Based, Man-in-the-Middle Attack – In this type of attack, an attacker has already infiltrated a legitimate website and captures the user’s credentials.
- SMS Messaging – Known as “smishing,” targets receive a fake message via a text messaging service that contains a link redirecting to a page that attempts to collect personal and sensitive information.
- Voice Mail – In a process known as “vishing,” a cybercriminal calls the target’s phone number and pretends to be someone legitimate, such as a bank or law enforcement official. The criminal may try to collect information over the phone or ask the victim to visit a fake website and enter sensitive information.
Types of Phishing Attacks
Most phishing attacks involve the mass distribution of many phishing emails at once. Typically, the emails pretend to come from a legitimate business, such as:
- Financial institutions or services, including major banks, credit card companies, or online payment platforms
- Email or technology service providers
- Social networking sites
- Online shopping sites
- Government entities (for example, the IRS)
- Cloud-based document management services
- Delivery and shipping companies
The email may include logos and artwork that make it appear as though it came from a genuine company. Links are often “spoofed” to make them look like they connect to a legitimate website. Cybercriminals also use sophisticated social engineering techniques to further lure the victim into responding to a phishing attack, such as creating a sense of urgency using fear tactics or attempting to bait the target through greed or curiosity. Sometimes the attacker pretends to be an authority figure or creates a fake identity to encourage the target to provide sensitive information.
Spear Phishing
Spear phishing is a targeted attack focused on a specific person or group of people. This approach typically involves some reconnaissance and research on the target individuals to make the fake communication seem legitimate.
Whaling
Whaling is a type of spear phishing focused on a high-profile individual, such as a corporate executive or leader. Whaling is often used to steal money or capture highly sensitive information.
Clone Phishing
In a clone phishing attack, a cybercriminal takes a genuine, previously delivered email and creates an almost identical copy containing malicious links or attachments. The original sender’s email address is typically spoofed to make it appear authentic.
Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Business email compromise involves the criminal spoofing the email address of a high-profile person (usually an executive) and sending a fake message to someone else within the same company. The email may request payment on a fake invoice or a large sum of money via wire transfer, or it may ask the recipient to share sensitive employee information, such as social security numbers and birth dates.
Vishing
Vishing is a combination of “voice” and “phishing.” During a vishing attack, the target receives a phone call in which the criminal attempts to convince the victim to divulge sensitive data, such as a credit card number or bank account information.
Smishing
Smishing is a phishing attack delivered via SMS or text messaging. The text’s content usually includes a link, phone number, or email address for the target to respond to.
What is Social Engineering?
Phishing attacks are often successful because of cybercriminals’ ability to persuade their intended targets of the fraudulent request’s legitimacy and urgency. Social engineering leverages different human emotions and reactions, including fear, trust, greed, urgency, curiosity, and scarcity. Social engineering techniques can also take advantage of the natural human response to authority figures, such as law enforcement or government officials.
How Does Phishing Work?
Cybercriminals typically follow a process when engaging in a phishing attack:
Step 1: Identify the Victim
- A large group of individuals (mass phishing attack)
- One or more individuals at a specific organization (spear phishing or whaling attack)
Step 2: Create the Attack
- Select a brand name or well-known company to spoof
- Build a website featuring logos and information similar to the chosen brand, along with web pages designed to collect victim data
- Develop digital content for distribution to targets that looks and feels legitimate
- Spoof sender email addresses to make them seem real
- Socially engineer the content to create a sense of urgency or fear
Step 3: Distribute the Attack
- Send emails or messages with fake links or attachments
- Promote links on existing websites that lead to fraudulent phishing pages or sites
Step 4: Hook the Victim
- The victim responds to the attack and provides the information or money requested by the attacker
Step 5: Expand or Monetize the Attack
- Use stolen credentials for additional future attacks
- Sell stolen credentials to other cybercriminals
- Steal money through wire fraud or stolen financial credentials
Phishing Telltale Signs
There are many common characteristics of phishing. If any of these features appear in an email, text message, or website, it is likely phishing.
- Spoofed email display name – The display name does not match the actual email address
- Spoofed links – When hovering over the link, the URL redirects to a site different from the claimed business
- Shortened URLs – Shortened URLs are often used to hide a malicious destination
- Typos and poor grammar – Poorly written content containing punctuation and grammar errors and typos are common in phishing communications
- Urgent or alarming content – Emails, pop-up website advertisements, or text messages with subject lines and content suggesting urgency or creating a sense of alarm should raise red flags
- Attachments and links – As a rule, you should never open attachments or click links from suspicious sources
- Login or credentials request – Any emails or text messages asking for login credentials, password resets, financial account information, credit card details, or any other type of sensitive data are immediately suspect
Phishing Prevention Best Practices
Several preventative measures can help protect an organization from phishing attacks:
- Phishing awareness training – Train staff to watch out for common phishing techniques and threats
- Hover over links – By hovering over a link, you can view the source and determine whether the display name matches the actual link
- Avoid sharing personal information on social media – Cybercriminals often scour social media for personal information about a potential target to help “legitimize” the attack by pretending to know the target
- Do not hit reply – If an email looks suspicious and you wish to verify its authenticity, respond to the sender by creating a new email and typing their email address manually. Do not hit reply in case the email has been spoofed
Phishing Protection
- Phishing Awareness Training – By providing employees with security awareness education, organizations can train staff to be suspicious of any email that asks them to provide login credentials or financial information
- Email Security – Since most phishing attacks begin with an email, email security solutions can help stop malicious messages before they reach an intended target
- Anti-Phishing Solutions – Anti-phishing solutions can include website and browser protection, anti-phishing toolbars, anti-spam, anti-malware, mobile app security, and social media protection
- Firewalls – On-premise and cloud-based firewalls can help prevent phishing threats from reaching staff
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – MFA offers protection from phishing attacks by helping to prevent a breach if an attacker has gained access to someone’s credentials
- Principle of Least Privilege – If a cybercriminal gains access to a user’s credentials, the principle of least privilege can help prevent attackers from gaining access to sensitive systems and data
