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Enterprise Security Magazine | Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Phishing emails are simple yet highly effective means for hackers to avoid security defenses and gain initial access to a target organization. Organizations must implement an active firewall to act as a defense mechanism.
FREMONT, CA: Many organizations invest a lot of money and effort into ensuring security to their networks. By deploying firewalls and other protection and detection of solutions at the network perimeter, they suggest the line for attackers that attempt to attack the organization's network. Luckily, these systems are often active at protecting against the common cyberattacks.
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Unfortunately, these systems are also often weak at protecting against in-person phishing attacks. Hacking is done in the most efficient way possible and has become a business. Cyber defenders have forced hackers to look for a way to raise the difficulty of successfully performing an entire technical attack.
Phishing has become more of a game between cyber defenders who are building new tools to detect and prevent potential attackers from finding ways to defeat these protections. Modern hackers use several different techniques to trick the end-user into giving up sensitive information.
Impersonation
An effective tactic used by phishers in the business contexts is called impersonation of the business's trusted party. These invaders may send an invoice from one of the company's suppliers or an email mentioning the CEO and orders to transfer the seal deal. If the end-user falls for the scam, the attackers immediately get paid for their phishing efforts.
Messenger Apps
Most people only think of phishing in the email context. However, hackers are enhancing their way and are making use of messenger apps like Telegram or Facebook Messenger. On these apps, users may be less on their defender than when using email. It enhances the possibility of a successful attack for the phisher.
Spoofed Login Pages
Fake login pages are nothing new in the phishing space. If a hacker can successfully steal a user's login credentials, they have complete access to the account. However, the main focus of these attacks has shifted from finance to SaaS offerings like Office 365. If an attacker can access these accounts, they can access all of the documents stored on that service and the user's associated email account. Both of these likely hold a wealth of valuable data and compromised email accounts is also used to infect other users.
See also: Top Cyber Security Companies
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