How to Detect and Avoid Phishing Attacks

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Today, you’re going to learn about phishing,
a scam that’s haunted the Internet as long as AOL has existed. First off, we
need to define phishing and how you can identify phishing, so without further
ado, let’s jump right into it!

Defining Phishing

Phishing takes place when a group or individual masquerades as an
authoritative and/or wealthy figure, typically through email or phone. However,
phishing can also take place through innocent scams such as “free gift card”
scams.

Let’s
look at a real-life example. When the GDPR regulation was being enacted
throughout the European Union, emails were being sent out by virtually every
company about the privacy policy changes they had to undergo.

Due
to this, scammers thought it a good idea to send out phishing emails disguised as these privacy policies update emails. So, when someone clicked on the link of these emails, they ended
up logging in, giving the scammer the information, or even worse, downloading
malware/viruses on the device.

Phishing can also take place through social media. Multiple Twitter
accounts exist just to post dangerous links and attempt the extortion of
personal information of others. This has a good chance of working to, as a young
kid may not realize that the “celebrity” they’re talking to isn’t a celebrity
at all, just an account that poses as one.

There
are various other methods, mainly being through phone and fake websites, so
let’s take a look at those.

The Various Phishing Methods

Fear/Extortion Phishing – Have you ever
visited a website, only to be met with a pop-up tab that says the FBI are on
their way to your address due to illegal content being found your computer?
Reading on, isn’t it weird how the FBI will stop their plan to capture you if
you buy a few $50 iTunes cards?

Congratulations, you’ve experienced fear phishing, the type of phishing
that uses your fear to manipulate your actions. You don’t see this as often as
other types of phishing, but some sketchy sites will use it.

Spear
Phishing – When a scammer uses spear phishing, they’re typically aiming for
a business. This type of phishing aims for specific individuals, such as higher
management in a business, or a CEO of a multi-million dollar company. If they
trick this authoritative figure, the attacker can gain access to the business’
network altogether, opening the possibilities for more malicious attacks, such
as the WannaCry
incident from last year.

Spear
phishing can also be referred to as “whaling”, depending on who is being
targeted.

Preventing Phishing

After
reading all that, you probably want to know how you can keep
phishing attacks at bay, and lucky for you, there a myriad of solutions.

First
off, educational programs are beneficial to you (and your company, if you
happen to be a part of/run one). Security education programs will run you
through the basics of keeping yourself away from phishing attacks, malware and
other threats to your data and privacy.

You should
also be taking a look at two-factor authentication, where you are unable to
access an account until you provide a randomly-generated code from either your
email or phone. So, even if you do end up making a mistake and falling for a
phishing scam, not all hope will be lost and you’ll have some time change your
login credentials.

Lastly, a password manager works well as a deterrent to phishing scams.
Password manager automatically detects websites that it has login credentials
to and auto-fills them. However, if you end up on a fake Amazon through a
sketchy email, the password manager won’t automatically fill it in, tipping you
off the validity of the site and saving you and your identity.

And
there you go! With this newfound knowledge, hopefully, you feel a bit more
secure when going through your email or clicking on links. Just no sketchy
ones!

How to Detect and Avoid Phishing Attacks