For a whaling excursion to be successful, the attackers must perform more in-depth research than usual, with the hope of impersonating their whale accurately. Anecdotally, I have personally been targeted by a whale attack at a previous company where a scammer posed as my CEO, asking for my phone number so they could call me to ask for a favor.
Luckily the email had plenty of tell-tale signs of fraud. Clone phishing attacks are less creative than spear and whale fishing, but still highly effective. This attack style has all of the core tenants of a phishing scam. However, the difference here is that rather than posing as a user or organization with a specific request, attackers copy a legitimate email that has previously been sent by a trusted organization [4].
The hackers then employ link manipulation to replace the real link included in the original email to redirect the victim to a fraudulent site to deceive users into entering the credentials they would use on the actual site. It is common for scammers to spoof official-looking emails from retailers like Amazon or Walmart, claiming that you need to enter your credentials or payment information to ensure they can complete your order.
Links embedded in the email will take you to a genuine-looking landing page to enter your sensitive information. With more people shopping online than ever before due to the pandemic and the evolving digital retail landscape, scammers will be working overtime this year. During the holiday season, these types of scams increase exponentially due to all of the gift-buying happening. An example of a phishing scam that has seen an uptick during the holiday season is a spoofed email from Amazon informing customers that they need to login to update their payment and shipping information to complete their order [5].
From personal experience, I get constant emails from Amazon about shipping, arrival dates, confirmations, etc. Check out our full infographic to test your knowledge. The email will appear to come from a legitimate entity within a recognized company , such as customer support. As with the subject line, the body copy of a phishing email typically employs urgent language to encourage the reader to act without thinking.
Phishing emails are also often riddled with both grammar and punctuation mistakes. A suspicious link is one of the main giveaways of a phishing email. This results in a reflected XSS attack, giving the perpetrator privileged access to the university network. See how Imperva Web Application Firewall can help you with phishing attacks.
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The growth of remote working during has arguably made it easier for criminals to conduct these schemes, because people working from home can't as easily talk to one of their colleagues to check if the email is legitimate. While email still remains a large focus of attackers carrying out phishing campaigns, the world is very different to how it was when phishing first started.
No longer is email the only means of targeting a victim as the rise of mobile devices, social media and more have provided attackers with a wider variety of vectors to use for attacking victims. With billions of people around the world using social media services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, attackers are no longer restricted to use one means of sending messages to potential victims.
Some attacks are simple and easy to spot: a Twitter bot might send you a private message containing a shortened URL that leads to something bad such as malware or maybe even a fake request for payment details.
SEE: Mobile security: These seven malicious apps have been downloaded by 2. But there are other attacks that play a longer game. A common tactic used by phishers is to pose as a person using photos ripped from the internet, stock imagery or someone's public profile. Often these are just harvesting Facebook 'friends' for some future mission and don't actually interact with the target.
However, sometimes plain old catfishing comes into play, with the attacker establishing a dialogue with the often male target - all while posing as a fake persona.
The 'Mia Ash' social media phishing campaign saw attackers operate a fake social media presence as if the fake persona was real. After a certain amount of time - it could be days, it could be months - the attacker might concoct a false story and ask the victim for details of some kind such as bank details, information, even login credentials, before disappearing into the ether with their info. One campaign of this nature targeted individuals in organisations in the financial, oil and technology sectors with advanced social engineering based around a single, prolific social media persona that was absolutely fake.
Those behind 'Mia Ash' are thought to have been working on behalf of the Iranian government and tricked victims into handing over login credentials and private documents. The rise of mobile messaging services - Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in particular - has provided phishers with a new method of attack.
Attackers don't even need to use emails or instant messaging apps in order to meet the end goal of distributing malware or stealing credentials - the internet-connected nature of modern communications means text messages are also an effective attack vector.
SMS phishing - or smishing - attacks work in much the same way as an email attack; presenting the victim with a fraudulent offer or fake warning as an incentive to click through to a malicious URL. The nature of text messaging means the smishing message is short and designed to grab the attention of the victim, often with the aim of panicking them into clicking on the phishing URL. A common attack by smishers is to pose as a bank and fraudulently warn that the victim's account has been closed, had cash withdrawn or is otherwise compromised.
The truncated nature of the message often doesn't provide the victim with enough information to analyse whether the message is fraudulent, especially when text messages don't contain tell-tale signs such as a sender address. Once the victim has clicked on the link, the attack works in the same way as a regular phishing attack, with the victim duped into handing over their information and credentials to the perpetrator.
As the popularity - and value - of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Monero and others have grown, attackers want a piece of the pie. Some hackers use cryptojacking malware , which secretly harnesses the power of a compromised machine to mine for cryptocurrency.
However, unless the attacker has a large network of PCs, servers or IoT devices doing their bidding, making money from this kind of campaign can be an arduous task that involves waiting months. Another option for crooks is to use phishing to steal cryptocurrency directly from the wallets of legitimate owners.
In a prominent example of cryptocurrency phishing , one criminal group conducted a campaign that copied the front of Ethereum wallet website MyEtherWallet and encouraged users to enter their login details and private key.
Once this information has been gathered, an automatic script automatically created the fund transfer by pressing the buttons like a legitimate user would, but all while the activity remained hidden from the user until it was too late. The theft of cryptocurrency in phishing campaigns like this and other attacks is costing millions. At the core of phishing attacks, regardless of the technology or the particular target, is deception. While many in the information security sector might raise an eyebrow when it comes to the lack of sophistication of some phishing campaigns, it's easy to forget that there are billions of internet users - and everyday there are people who are only accessing the internet for the first time.
Large swathes of internet users therefore won't even be aware about the potential threat of phishing, let alone that they might be targeted by attackers using it. Why would they even suspect that the message in their inbox isn't actually from the organisation or friend it claims to be from? But while some phishing campaigns are so sophisticated and specially crafted that the message looks totally authentic, there are some key give-aways in less advanced campaigns that can make it obvious to spot an attempted attack.
Many of the less professional phishing operators still make basic errors in their messages - notably when it comes to spelling and grammar. Official messages from any major organisation are unlikely to contain bad spelling or grammar, and certainly not repeated instances throughout the body.
A poorly written message should act as an immediate warning that the communication might not be legitimate. It's common for attackers to use a service like Google Translate to translate the text from their own first language, but despite the popularity of these services, they still struggle to make messages sound natural.
It's very common for email phishing messages to coerce the victim into clicking through a link to a malicious or fake website designed for malicious purposes. Many phishing attacks will contain what looks like an official-looking URL. However, it's worth taking a second careful look.
In some instances, it can simply be a shortened URL , whereby the attackers hope the victim won't check the link and will just click through. In other instances, attackers will take a minor variation on a legitimate web address and hope the user doesn't notice.
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