Do you know this new practice (malware) called Spear Phishing? Understand how it works and how to protect your data and your company. It is a new technique, so it is easy to read.
Increasingly, spear phishing has proven to be an effective technique for accessing company-internal data. Unlike traditional phishing, which uses generic messages to target a wide base of victims, spear phishing is a personalized attack that seeks a very specific target.
It is usually directed at a pre-selected employee to gain access to a company's confidential information or install malware. Therefore, this fraud is much more difficult to detect.
How does Spear Phishing Work?
In practice, the employee receives a legitimate email from the organization or services associated with it. More sophisticated cybercriminals can even defraud an email on behalf of one of the company's directors or someone in their circle of trust. Through social engineering techniques, criminals discover personal information about employees that are used to make email more reliable. Often, this information can be available on the company's website and even on social networks, such as Facebook or Linkedin. Your professional connections and check-ins in exchange for wi-fi can become valuable information for fraudsters.
When clicking on the email, the employee will be directed to a fake page of a known product or service, or else will be induced to share data, since the source of the email is reliable. This is the first step for the fraudster to get data and start his attack on the company. Usually, the captured credentials (login and password) are used to access the mailbox. From accessing the email, the attacker can increase his attack surface by affecting other people, using the credibility of the affected employee. In many cases, access to a high-level employee's mailbox may be enough for the attacker to initiate the extortion process, also known as blackmail, where the company is required to pay a ransom so that the attacker does not reveal data from clients.
Malware infections can be an important vector for filtering company data. According to TrendMicro's report, companies or government organizations receive spear phishing with attachments in 94% of cases. This is because people usually share files (such as reports, documents, and resumes) by email, as downloads on the internet are riskier.
When attacks are successful and the desired information is stolen, it can be used in a variety of ways. Making bank transfers, defrauding identities, revealing business secrets, or even spying on competitors and manipulating stock prices are some of the possibilities. And all of this was due to an employee's failure. There is no point in having a well-configured firewall if the weakness of digital security in a company is its employees.
How to Avoid Spear Phishing?
The best way to prevent your company from being affected by spear-phishing is through employee awareness and training. Simple tips, like checking the sender's email address, suspecting links and attached files, and always being suspicious of requests for confidential or personal information can prevent critical leaks. And, of course, do not disclose sensitive information by email, unless the source is secure and properly verified. Also having total security is a great advantage for protecting against spear phishing.
Digital security must be a concern at all levels of the company, after all, it is as strong as its weakest link.
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