Between data breaches, ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, and so much else, today’s organizations face an onslaught of cybersecurity threats. Information—whether it’s financial information or trade secrets—is power. One thing security consultants agree on? Phishing overtakes the rest as the primary tactic hackers use against organizations.
Don’t fall victim to phishing attempts. Get inside the mind of a hacker with a deep dive into phishing so you can better protect your organization.
What Is Phishing?
Phishing is one of the most pervasive cybersecurity threats designed to steal personal information, either at the individual or corporate level. With it, attackers impersonate legitimate entities to trick people into taking an action via emails, websites, and/or messages. Phishing is part of a larger umbrella that covers a few distinct types of attacks that vary based on their goal:
Credential Phishing
The most common form of phishing when someone says, “I’ve been hacked!” comes from attackers trying to gain access to usernames, passwords, and payment information. Credential phishing opens access to an internal network through fake emails and websites that appear legitimate, tricking users into entering information that attackers use to commit identity theft, fraud, and data theft.
Payload Phishing
While email servers often flag suspicious messages, payload phishing can still cause substantial damage if something slips through the cracks and users follow the breadcrumbs. Payload phishing establishes access to devices, getting victims to open or download malicious files or links (a payload) to open a backdoor into their computer.
Chain Social Engineering
Today’s web users are savvy, making cybersecurity threats more difficult to execute. Chain social engineering offers a second line of attack if a hacker’s initial phishing attempt fails. Instead of targeting just one person or attack, hackers look for weak points in different "links" of a chain—such as employees, contractors, or customers—to gather information and access secure data.
Chain social engineering is effective because it plays on emotions, trust, or urgency to manipulate individuals into taking action. For example, a hacker might even call pretending to be an IT team member to get a response!
Collecting Open-Source Intelligence
Targeting an organization through phishing involves building a detailed list of everyone who works there, including their email addresses and contact information. Hackers look to such sources as websites, news articles, and public records to gather open-source intelligence about organizations and take advantage of vulnerabilities. This doesn’t necessarily mean scouring the web for hours, however. Clever hackers use tools to find what they need.
LinkedInt
Hackers rely on LinkedInt because it allows them to take advantage of users where they spend time online: social media. With it, attackers query organizations through LinkedInt, pulling together a list of all LinkedIn users associated with the organization under attack.
This is frighteningly effective because LinkedInt generates email addresses from standard formats (e.g., understanding if email addresses are formatted as firstname.lastname@ or firstinitiallastname@ to target all users.
Website Cloning
For any phishing attempt to be successful, its associated media must look and feel like the real thing. Website cloning enables hackers to create nearly identical copies of legitimate websites to fool unsuspecting users into entering private information. Still, building a website often takes months, so bad actors use tools of the trade to get up and running quickly.
SingleFile
Chrome extensions can go from helpful tools to hacker’s playground. SingleFile was designed to help developers conveniently save website information and code, but it also makes phishing easy.
With it, attackers can go to any website, click the extension, and pull all the content from a website, including the CSS and JavaScript, into one document. It’s suddenly much easier to create fake websites for organizations under attack and capture credentials as unsuspecting users log in.
Creating Phishing Campaigns
Put it all together now. Contact information and websites lay the groundwork for the phishing campaigns attackers execute to lure users into sharing private data via emails, links, or messaging. But would you believe it if we said attackers managed these cybersecurity threats inside dedicated platforms that resemble everyday tech tools?
GoPhish
Not to be confused with the childhood card game, GoPhish is a multifeature phishing tool reminiscent of a marketing platform. As attackers log in, they get access to a dashboard to manage phishing campaigns and stats such as how many users clicked on an email, reported it, or submitted credentials.
Hackers use GoPhish in tandem with LinkedInt to bulk import employee contact information into a .CSV file, enabling them to target thousands of people in seconds. GoPhish is a hacker’s paradise because of its robust features, enabling them to:
- Create phishing email templates.
- Build landing pages.
- Manage sending profiles.
- Store personal domains.
Phishing campaigns truly are similar to executing marketing campaigns. Attackers can use GoPhish to craft enticing subject lines—just like any marketing email—to get users to click, but the links are far more nefarious (There’s a reason we’ve all been taught not to click inside spam messages!). They simply set up corresponding landing pages that redirect to a fake website they own to capture data in the phishing server, targeting their LinkedInt list, reviewers, and users who’ve commented on videos and posts.
Mitigate Threats with MFA—Everywhere
If attackers can obtain and mimic information so easily, fighting back may feel like a lost cause. But you are never powerless against cybersecurity threats. Stop them with multifactor authentication (MFA). Instead of simply entering a username and password to access accounts, users achieve extra protection by initiating a secondary authentication step.
Try as they might, attackers can’t successfully phish accounts that require more than one set of credentials. Even if hackers steal passwords, they don’t have users’ mobile devices in their hands. MFA protects all login points by sending a text or push notification that can only be verified on the user’s device. By spending a few extra seconds to log in, employees help keep their organization secure.
Keep Phishing and Other Cybersecurity Threats at Bay with All Covered
Checking emails and using software for core tasks are just part of your average workday. Phishing is effective because it plays on our trust and reliance on technology. As cybercriminals refine their tactics, you need a robust defense strategy.
All Covered uses a multilayered approach to protect your organization from cybersecurity threats. We provide tailored managed security solutions to meet your unique requirements, including vulnerability management to detect issues, incident response planning to mitigate the effects of cyberattacks, endpoint protection to safeguard your servers and workstations, and more.
Explore our cybersecurity services to see how you can better protect your organization. Book a meeting today to discuss your needs with an All Covered expert.
