Phishing attacks are a highly effective way to target not only a person, but an organization.
Phishing is a targeted attempt by an individual or group (team) to solicit information from unsuspected users by employing social engineering techniques. Social engineering is an art of deceptive behavior to trick a user into divulging information that is sought, and then used against that person or the organization they are employed by. Every day, thousands of crafted emails are sent to their respective targets. Everyday, more and more users fall victim to these scams. Phishing is not only conducted by email, but by text message as well.
Phishing attempts generally have the same goal in mind. They are designed to capture information such as account numbers, social security numbers, login credentials or some other form of information that can be used to cause collateral damage.
Phishing campaigns lure their victims into a false sense of security by spoofing familiar content, or trusted logos of an establishment, such as a legitimate company. Sometimes, criminals pretend to be a family member, or another employee you may recognize within the company.
A new report from PhishLabs establishes phishing campaigns remain the easiest and most productive attack vector used by criminals. PhishLabs has also reported that the company enterprise is now the most sought target in 2018 versus the past most valuable target, the consumer.
There is a phishing season. In October, phishing attacks increase by an average of 50%. 71% of phishing emails in 2018 ranged from September 1st, to October 31st that were focused on impersonating top 10 organizations.
There are numerous ways organizations can take a stance against phishing attacks.
Here is an example of what a phishing email may look like.
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