Common Phishing Attacks and How to Prevent Them
One thing that we do not usually think about when we are using our MSN browser is the site that we click on. We just do our own search, type the words on the search bar, and pick the first ones that appear on the search engine. You can be looking for tips on selling websites, ways of migrating from Magento to Shopify, or the best website creation service available and you will find lots of search results appear on page 1. It is just normal to pick the top sites that show up. But the problem is that we are never too sure of which ones are phishing and which sites to safe to visit. Listed below are the common phishing attacks and way to prevent them from getting information from you.
Deceptive Phishing
Have you ever been to a website that really looks and feels like the company site that you have been visiting before? This can be an online banking site, a social media site, or even a normal blog site depending on its popularity. You will be asked to log in to your account and put your password in order to go to your main dashboard or interface. This can be quite scary because once the attackers get a hold of your personal information, they can do whatever they please on them. They can steal your money, defraud you with your own information, or threaten you into their bidding because of the number of private details that they have about you.
The best way to not be deceived by these sites is by having your favorite websites bookmarked. Always look out for grammar errors and mistakes that the site has. A website that has a lot of errors is most probably a phishing site.
Spear phishing
The goal of spear phishing is the same as deceptive phishing. They will have all the personal information that they can get from you. They will use the information to personally attack you or get you to pay up depending on the number of credentials that they got. The approach is different though. The ones who use spear phishing will create an attack email and make it as personal as possible. Because spear phishing makes these emails look legit, you will be required to click on a particular URL. This URL is a phishing site that gets all your information and passwords. The common places for spear phishing are social media accounts like LinkedIn or Facebook.
To avoid this, companies must implement a safety tool to prevent these emails or messages from reaching employees. They will also be required to attend safety training about spear phishing and how not to click on malicious site URLs.
CEO fraud
This is an attempt of attackers to get the credentials and personal information of a CEO or president of a company. The information that they get will be used to conduct fraud of the CEO. They will impersonate the CEO and try to get as much money or information about the company that he is working for. This is prevalent because most CEOs or presidents of companies do not participate in online safety seminars or training.
To prevent this from happening in your company, you must improve your policy and avoid online transactions with regard to the company finance.
