Everyone—businesses and individuals alike—has sensitive information that cybercriminals want. To get it, cybercrooks aim a targeted hacking attack at a specific user. The purpose might be to steal the customer’s personal information that can lead to identity theft, to exploit the organization’s intellectual property, or even use the person’s sensitive income and employment data. These targeted cyber attacks are known as spear phishing attacks. They are designed to dupe the victim into a false sense of security and make them download malware or give away login details. Spear phishing is one of the most popular ploys used by hackers these days to gain access to sensitive data. Therefore, it is important for a person and a corporation to stay safe from this common hacking attack. Trustifi offers complete protection for your email system against any level of phishing threats.
Unlike traditional phishing, in spear phishing, the target is just a single individual. Hence, spear phishing emails are crafted in such a way that users trust the spear phishing email enough to open it and click the link or download and install the malware immediately. A report from Barracuda’s security company says that 83 percent of spear phishing attempts rely on brand spoofing, where the spear phishers’ email appears to come from a reputable company. Today, this social engineering attack has become one of the most successful hacking methods.
How Spear Phishing Works?
Typically, spear phishing targets the victim through email. Sometimes, however, it can also be done with SMS text messages (smishing) or voice calls (vishing). Spear phishing hackers use advanced techniques, so detecting the phishing attack can be extremely tricky. They create bogus emails with carefully crafted details to maximize the probability of a victim opening the email and clicking the malicious link. Moreover, hackers typically choose a specific day of the week to launch these targeted attacks and send a suspicious email as it can increase the victim’s chances of opening the message. Research says one in five bogus emails that may lead to data breaches and business email compromise are sent on Tuesday.
In brand masquerade attacks, emails often seem to come from a popular tech giant—Paypal or Google, for example. Users can, however, also receive spear phishing emails from airlines, banks, and other non-tech brands.
These attacks may be made to look like they come from a trusted source, such as a customer, manager, IT support, or the accounting department. The attackers will cleverly research users on public sources, social media or even the dark web, dig out their personal details (contact information), and create an email that appears reasonable at first glance. Hackers use Facebook, Twitter, and other open-source intelligence to gather more information about the user, including their interests, where they work, and their colleagues.
Steps of a typical spear phishing attack:
Search the email address: Choose the target and identify their email address.Technical evasion: Research the target company, find out its defenses, and dig up other relevant information about the company.Send the emails: Buy a clean but fake domain address and modify Whois information to align with target domains.Reap the Reward: Wait until the target opens the email, falls for the ploy, and clicks the malicious link that leads the hapless victim into the perpetrator’s nefarious net.
Ways to Protect from Spear Phishing
Just like other modern cyber threats, spear phishing presents significant challenges to mounting a solid defense. Traditional anti-spam techniques work well with other phishing attacks, but both whaling and spear phishing are specifically crafted to tackle these automated security defenses. Nevertheless, if you don’t want to fall victim to spear phishing attacks, you should follow these simple steps in your company:
Install the latest anti-malware software in your system (install updates automatically, especially the latest security patches). Use DMARC Technology. Encrypt your sensitive company information. Activate two or multi factor authentication wherever possible. Build capabilities to identify malicious attacks and stop phishing. Educate your employees about spear phishing and test them regularly to see if they are at risk. Confirm all the emails before opening them.
Among these measures, the most effective method that helps avoid spear phishing is user education. Training users to spot suspicious emails (CEO fraud, domain fraud, credit card fraud) is the most critical way to protect the company from spear phishing. The majority of spear phishing attacks succeed because of errors on the employee’s end. A little mistake by a worker can lead to a successful phishing attack which could cost the entire company. When just one employee falls for a plausible message from a spoofed email address, the entire company’s sensitive information can be compromised. The good news is, people can avoid such errors with practice and education. Companies should teach the basics of spear phishing to their employees and help them understand how it works. The goal is to educate as many employees as possible about what they should do to enhance email security (for example: using strong passwords instead of the simplest passwords for multiple accounts) and what steps they should take if they encounter a suspicious message.
Trustifi helps companies avoid spear phishing attacks
Because humans aren’t perfect, and they are dealing with a more sophisticated version of cyber attack, using Trustifi’s cybersecurity services is highly recommended as an extra layer of protection for your business. Trust is not just a part of the company name, it is built into the secure email solutions it provides to hundreds of businesses like yours. Trustifi has been fighting phishing attacks for years and has developed cost effective methods and a strong algorithm for protection. Trustifi helps organizations prepare for, respond to, and mitigate the impact of cyber attacks. Contact a Trustifi representative today to learn how simple and affordable the next level of security protection can be.
