Phishing is a cybercrime technique used to lure the target or targets to divulging sensitive or confidential information. Discover the top 4 phishing threats to your business and how Isecurdata can help your business to prevent phishing.
Phishing has become a household technique in the hacking and cybercrime enterprise because of its ability to siphon sensitive and confidential information from the target or targets which are then used to launch diverse cyber-attacks. These cyber-attacks are commonly attributed to the top four phishing threats discussed in this article.
Many successful cyber-attacks launched at businesses attribute their success to phishing. Furthermore, phishing has a huge impact on many data breaches across the globe, phishing is a technique that is popularly used when it comes to data breaches.
Survey shows that 96% of phishing attacks arrived by email where another 3% are carried out through malicious websites and only 1% via phone. Research also shows that 95% of all the attacks on enterprise networks are a result of successful spear phishing.
How Phishing Works?
Phishing relies on social networking techniques that are applied to electronic communication methods. Some of these methods include direct messages sent over email, social network platforms, SMS text messages, and phone calls.
Cybercriminals can use publicly available information about the target or targets such as personal and work history, interests, and activities. This information can be gathered through social network platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, such information includes full name, email addresses, and job titles. Subsequently, this information can be used to craft believable emails, SMS messages, or conversations via phone.
Furthermore, the target or targets receive a message that appears to have been sent from a known individual or organization. The intended cyber-attack is then carried out either through a malicious file attachment or through a link connected to a malicious website.
The malicious file attachment aims to get a malware payload onto the target’s device or to install malware on the target’s device. However, the target can be directed to a fake website; fake websites are being set up to trick the target into divulging sensitive and confidential information such as passwords, account credentials, or payment card details.
Top 4 Phishing Threats to Your Business
- Phishing Threat to Business Data: Phishing threats to data apply when an employee or executive responds to a phishing email, or phishing calls about their bank account or any account that requires login credentials such as username and password of work or personal email, social media accounts, or e-commerce websites. The impact of the divulged data on a business may take years to become apparent, which is why phishing threats to data should be taken seriously and measures should be put in place to manage the threats.
- Phishing Threat to Business Operations: Whenever an employee accesses a malicious website from their work computer or device, and download executable malware payloads through phishing emails, the business’s entire network infrastructure could be infected hence, disrupting the smooth operation of the business.
- Phishing Threat to Business Reputation: Whenever a business data source becomes infiltrated through phishing, the resultant effect is a data breach where confidential and sensitive information of clients and customers become publicly available. This can damage the reputation of a business, result in litigation and make customers lose their trust in such business.
- Ransomware: One of the most serious of all existing phishing threats is the delivery of ransomware payload via email. Ransomware is malicious software used to access and lock down data until a requested fee is paid. Phishing emails are the most used technique to carry out this cyber-attack on businesses, which is why serious measures should be put in place to prevent this threat.
Isecurdata with over thirty years of IT Security experience and standardized cybersecurity specialists can help you to reduce the chances of phishing threats to your business with phishing intelligence training for your staff and ongoing support to ensure security resilience.
Secure your business – book a consultation call with one of our cybersecurity specialists today.