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The Changing Face of Phishing: How One of the Most Common Attacks is Evolving

Reading Time: ~ 3 min.

Most people are familiar with phishing attacks. After all, they’re one of the most common forms of data breach around.

At their most basic, phishing attacks are attempts to steal confidential information by pretending to be an authorized person or organization. Standard phishing is not targeted. It relies on achieving a few successes out of hundreds or thousands of attempts. But because it’s so cheap to pull off, both in terms of effort invested and cost to conduct, even one person taking the bait make a campaign worth a malicious actor’s time.

But phishing has evolved. “Standard” phishing as we commonly think of it is now only a subsection of tactics carried out to achieve the same end: to swipe confidential information from an unsuspecting target in order to extract something of value.

To better be on guard across the diverse group of tactics that fall under the umbrella of phishing, users should be familiar with the ways these attacks are conducted.

We’ll cover a few here, but to learn more, download the 11 Types of Phishing Attack eBook.

Spear Phishing

If standard phishing is akin to trawling the High Seas to catch users indiscriminately, spear phishers are out for the trophy catch. Where most phishing attacks cast a wide net, hoping to entice as many users as possible to take the bait, spear phishing involves heavy research of pre-defined, high-dollar target—like a CEO, founder, or public persona—often relying on publicly available information for a more convincing ruse. When the target is sizeable enough, the CEO of a large, publicly traded company say, spear phishing is sometimes called ‘whaling.’

Smishing

SMS-enabled phishing uses text messaging to delivering malicious links, often in the form of short codes to obscure the ultimate destination of a link, to ensnare smartphone users in their scams. The term is a portmanteau of SMS and phishing, and it’s an attractive method for cybercriminals because oh the high engagement rates for texts. According to some sources, SMS open rates are around 98% compared to 20% for email. Messages are often are often disguised as sweepstakes winnings, flash sales, coupon codes, and requests for charitable or political contributions.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

One of the most expensive threats facing businesses today, business email compromise involves a phony email, usually claiming to be someone from within or associated with a target’s company, requesting a payment or purchase be made (often of gift cards). A “confidence game” according to the FBI, BEC attempts are often accompanied by a sense of high urgency to discourage critical thinking. Of the $3.5 billion the FBI estimates businesses lost to cybercrime in 2019, nearly half ($1.7 billion) was blamed on business email compromise.

Search Engine Phishing

In this type of attack, cyber criminals wait for you to come to them. Search engine phishing injects fraudulent sites, often in the form of paid ads, into results for popular search terms. These ads often promise amazing deals, career advancement opportunities, or low interest rates for loans. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Often, the only difference between the scam result and the one you’re looking for is a .com that should be a .org or a .org that should be a .gov. Be on the lookout for strange endings to URLs. It may be just a country-specific domain, but they can also be hiding something more sinister.

Protecting Yourself from Phishing Attacks

Protecting yourself from phishing attacks starts with knowing what’s out there. But while staying vigilant will keep most attackers at bay, no one can be 100% secure on their own. That’s why it’s important to use an antivirus that relies on up to date threat intelligence that can block these threats in real time as they are clicked. Also, it is imperative for businesses to train their users on the types of phishing attacks employees could fall for.

For more types of phishing attacks, real-world examples, and more tips for keeping yourself or your business safe from such attacks, download the 11 Types of Phishing Attack eBook.

The post The Changing Face of Phishing: How One of the Most Common Attacks is Evolving appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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From new experiences in Microsoft Teams to better data protection—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 in July

At Inspire this week, we're announcing new features to streamline workflows right within Teams, ensure great meeting experiences, protect data, and more.

The post From new experiences in Microsoft Teams to better data protection—here’s what’s new in Microsoft 365 in July appeared first on Microsoft 365 Blog.

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Cyber News Rundown: GoldenSpy

Reading Time: ~ 2 min.

Malware Discovered in Chinese Tax Software

As part of an official Chinese tax initiative, researchers have found multiple backdoors into mandatory tax software installed on all Chinese business systems. The new malware is called GoldenHelper, in a nod to the command-and-control domain tax-helper.ltd, and has been in active development and use since 2018. The latest campaign, dubbed GoldenSpy, is adept at avoiding detection and began within months of the old command-and-control servers going offline.

Texas Collections Company Suffers Data Breach

The Texas billing and collection company Benefits Recovery Specialists Inc. has announced that a breach containing data on over 250,000 customers occurred in April. The breach leaked personally identifiable information including Social Security Numbers, birthdates and physical addresses, that could all be used to launch additional attacks. Affected clients began receiving notifications about the breach in June, though the company has still not shared what malware was installed by the perpetrators.

Microsoft Fixes 17-Year-Old DNS Flaw

After nearly 17 years of being active and exploitable, Microsoft has finally identified and resolved a major vulnerability involving a worm-like transmission that requires no human interaction. With the help of a third-party security firm Microsoft was able to patch the vulnerability before it caused significant damage, though the time was certainly there for malicious actors to use the flaw to execute any number of malicious executables onto an endless string of compromised machines.

UK Ticket Provider Leaves 4.8 Million Logins Unsecured

A collection of roughly 4.8 million login credentials have been found in a leaked database belonging to a major UK ticker provider serving customers around the world. Among the credentials were domains belonging to several government agencies along with millions of consumer webmail users. The site has also been targeted in the past by attackers looking to deface the website and has been called vulnerable to SQL injection should attackers pursue that method.

Wattpad Database Compromises Millions of Users

Officials have been working over the past week to remediate a data breach that could affect over 200 million users of Wattpad. The compromised database was listed for $100,000 on a Dark Web sale site, but was later re-listed with no price. Its owners claim to hold records for over 271 million users. Wattpad has stated that, though personally identifiable information was revealed in the breach, no financial information was accessible since Wattpad doesn’t store it directly on its servers.

The post Cyber News Rundown: GoldenSpy appeared first on Webroot Blog.

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Summer fitness: Let’s get digital

Reading Time: ~ 3 min.

Summer is upon us. For some, summer is all about physical fitness. While exercise is essential to our overall well-being, we shouldn’t forget about our digital fitness, either. Just as our bodies serve our needs and help us go about our daily lives, so too do our computers and digital systems. And they deserve the time and effort it takes to make them as healthy as they can be. With that in mind, we talked with Webroot Security Analyst, Tyler Moffitt about digital fitness – and cyber resilience – for individuals and businesses. Be sure to add the following tips to your summertime fitness goals.

How is cyber resilience analogous to physical fitness?

Cyber resilience is all about having a robust security posture and making sure you take care of your digital presence with your internet-connected devices and accounts. These are all parallels with physical fitness in that it’s a life choice and not something you can just do only once in a while.

What are the things we can do to maintain healthy digital lifestyles?

Take care of devices and accounts, be it work or personal. Use two-factor or multi-factor authentication (2FA/MFA) whenever possible and never re-use passwords across multiple accounts. Using password phrases is one of the best ways to create long and unique passwords. Length is strength. Backing up and encrypting confidential data and using virtual private networks (VPNs) are great best practices as well.

What are the consequences of neglecting to maintain a healthy digital lifestyle for both individuals and businesses?

The risk of being infected with malware or having accounts breached skyrockets. This can then cascade to a whole organization, resulting in its data being held for ransom. Someone may even be held responsible and could perhaps even lose their job. There’s also a risk of criminals committing identity theft against you, which can be very costly.

Exercise is only helpful if it’s done on an ongoing basis. What ongoing practices should people be mindful of to protect themselves digitally?

A few things come to mind:

  • Use reputable layered security
  • Embrace user education
  • Lock down remote connections
  • Disable what you don’t use
  • Do inventory and patch management
  • Have multiple backups
  • Educate yourself and, if applicable, your workforce

We’re supposed to undergo regular doctor checkups to ensure we’re maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Are there “checkups” people can perform to gauge the status of their digital health?

Education! Specifically, security awareness training. We recommend phishing simulations to test yourself and ensure you can tell the difference between a standard, benign email and a phishing scam. Also, educational courses help you understand the current threat landscape and how criminals try to trick you. Cyberthieves are always adapting their approaches as people become more educated, so it’s important stay informed about the latest tactics.

There’s only so much we can do on our own before we have to seek medical intervention from a doctor. What are the scenarios where people may want to reach out to an IT expert to address a digital health issue?

Whenever you’re unsure of something, ask – just like you would with a doctor. If you’re unsure of something going on with your body, you would ask the doctor for more info. The same holds true for your digital life. If you receive an email that you think might be phishing but are unsure, don’t just click and hope for the best. Immediately ask an IT professional who can advise you. And do the same when handling or storing sensitive information. Make sure the methods you use to transmit and store data are encrypted. For handling business data, find out what your organization’s data retention policy is and make sure you’re complying with it.

Carry it forward

Summer motivates us to get fit more than other times of the year. But just like physical fitness is best when it’s practiced year-round, so is digital fitness. Cyberthieves don’t take breaks at any time of year. And neither should you when it comes to practicing good cyber resilience behaviors.

The post Summer fitness: Let’s get digital appeared first on Webroot Blog.